AvlOS-ANCEUr> 


O         ••' 


^-UBRARYO-r 


WOMAN: 

HER  RIGHTS,  WRONGS,  PRIVILEGES,  AND 
RESPONSIBILITIES. 


CONTAINING  A   SKETCH    OF    HER    CONDITION  IN   ALL    AGES  AND 

COUNTRIES,  FROM    HER  CREATION    AND  FALL   IN  EDEN  TO 

THE  PRESENT  TIME:     HER  PRESENT  LEGAL  STATUS  DJ 


ENGLAND,  FRANCE,  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES: 


HER    RELATIONS    TO    MAN,   PHYSIOLOGICAL,  SOCIAL,    MORAL,  AND 

INTELLECTUAL:  HER  ABILITY  TO  FILL  THE  ENLARGED  SPHERE 

OF  DUTIES  AND  PRIVILEGES  CLAIMED  FOR  HER:  HER  TRUE 

POSITION  IN  EDUCATION,  PROFESSIONAL  LIFE,  EMPLOY- 

MENT8,  AND  WAGES,  CONSIDERED. 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE, 


ITS  FOLLY  AND  INEXPEDIENCY,  AND  THE  INJURY  AND  DETERIORA- 
TION WHICH  IT  WOULD  CAUSE  IN  HER  CHARACTER,  SHOWN, 
AND   THE  BEST  MEANS  FOR   HER   REAL  ADVANCEMENT 
AND  ELEVATION  DEMONSTRATED. 


BY  L.  P.  BROCKETT,  M.  D., 

Author  of  "Woman's  Work  in  the  Civil  War;"  "Men  of  Our  Day;"  and  other  publi- 
cations ;  also  one  of  the  Editorial  Contributors  to  Appletons'  Cyclopedia. 


ILLUSTRATED.— SOLD  BY  AGENTS  ONLY. 


HARTFORD: 
I>  TJ  B  I,  I  S  II  E3  D    BY    I,  .    STEBBI3STS, 

1869. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress  (for  English  and  German  languages)  In  the 
year  1869,  by 

L.    8TEBBIN8, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the 
District  of  Connecticut. 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


IT  has  been  deemed  desirable  to  illustrate  this  work  some- 
what largely,  but  with  due  reference  to  its  high  character 
as  a  book  which  should  be  in  the  hands  of  every  family. 
The  illustrations  are  some  of  them  of  historical  incidents, 
relating  to  the  condition  of  woman  in  foreign  countries 
and  former  times ;  some  refer  to  existing  employments  in 
other  countries;  some  to  the  quiet  beauty  of  a  happy 
home ;  others  to  the  various  occupations  in  which  woman 
has  been,  or  is  likely  to  be,  engaged ;  while  a  few  refer  to 
that  period,  which  we  hope  is  far  distant,  when  women 
will  enter  upon  a  political  career,  and  forgetting  the  graces 
and  delicacy  which  now  cause  them  to  be  loved,  hon- 
ored, and  reverenced,  will  become  brawling  politicians, 
greedy  office-seekers,  and  bold,  hard,  unwomanly  aspirants 
for  place  and  power.  We  have  sought,  in  these  last  illus- 
trations, "to  hold  the  mirror  up  to  nature,"  not  in  an 
unkindly,  but  a  dissuasive  spirit,  hoping  that  all  sensible, 
thoughtful  women,  seeing  what  unseemly  creatures  they 
would  become  by  plunging  into  a  political  career,  might 
be  led  to  avoid  the  danger,  and  give  their  powerful  influ- 
ence against  it. 

THE  PUBLISHES. 


1703916 


4    PREFACE. 


WE  are  living  in  a  period  of  moral,  political,  and  social 
upheaval.  The  earthquakes  and  volcanic  eruptions  which 
within  the  past  two  or  three  years  have  desolated  such 
wide  tracts  of  the  earth's  surface  are  but  the  feeble  physi- 
cal analogues  of  those  mightier  revolutions  which,  within 
a  half  score  of  years,  have  overturned  ancient  abuses, 
unsettled  institutions  which  had  their  roots  deep  in  the 
foundations  of  society,  have  borne  mankind  onward  in  the 
path  of  progress  with  the  swiftness  of  an  avalanche,  and 
are  still  threatening  changes  that  may  alter  the  entire 
character  of  our  social  organization. 

We  have  seen,  in  the  last  decade,  slavery  and  serfdom 
abolished,  the  greater  part  of  Italy  rescued  from  the  tem- 
poral power  of  the  Pope,  the  Concordat  overthrown,  the 
scepter  wrested  from  the  Bourbons  of  Sicily  and  Spain, 
the  democratic  power  greatly  increased  in  France,  the 
franchise  extended  to  a  large  body  of  the  working  class  in 
Great  Britain  and  to  the  African  race  in  our  own  country, 
and  are  now  face  to  face  with  two  other  great  questions, 
the  solution  of  which  involves  some  of  the  profoundest 


(J  PREFACE. 

topics  of  political  economy  and  social  organization — the 
entire  severance  of  Church  and  State  in  Great  Britain, 
and,  as  a  corollary,  the  overthrow  of  the  political  ascend- 
ency of  the  British  aristocracy — and  the  question  of  the 
reform  in  the  legal  status  of  woman,  as  involving  her  em- 
ployments, her  wages,  and  her  claim  to  the  exercise  of  the 
right  of  suffrage. 

With  the  former  of  these  questions,  we,  as  Americans, 
have  only  the  interest  of  our  sympathy  with  universal 
liberty,  and  our  common  lineage.  With  the  latter  we  are 
deeply  concerned ;  for  though  the  demand  for  these  changes 
in  the  condition  of  woman  is  made  in  other  countries  as 
well  as  our  own,  it  attains  here  its  highest  significance, 
and  upon  our  action  will  depend  in  a  great  degree  its  suc- 
cess or  failure  elsewhere.  Demands  for  enlarged  freedom 
of  action,  assuming  to  be  made  in  the  interests  of  that 
spirit  of  universal  liberty  whose  very  name  is  so  dear  to  us, 
are  in  danger  of  being  yielded  without  sufficient  scrutiny, 
and  once  yelded,  no  retrograde  step,  however  desirable  it 
may  be,  is  possible. 

It  has  seemed,  therefore,  to  the  writer,  a  matter  of  duty 
to  examine  this  whole  question  of  the  political,  social,  and 
economical  status  of  woman,  in  a  spirit  of  thorough  fair- 
ness and  candor:  to  gather  from  past  history  and  from 
present  laws  and  customs,  what  are  the  actual  wrongs, 
oppressions,  and  disabilities  under  which  the  sex  suffer ; 


PREFACE.  7 

what  are  their  present  rights  and  privileges ;  what  is  their 
moral,  intellectual,  and  social  relation  to  man ;  what  ad- 
vances, either  in  economical,  political,  or  social  life,  are  with- 
in the  limits  of  their  capacities,  and  finally,  what  are  the 

•V 

arguments  for  and  against  their  exercise  of  the  suffrage. 
In  this  whole  discussion,  it  has  been  the  aim  of  the 
writer  to  avoid,  alike  from  his  high  esteem  for  the  sex,  and 
his  regard  for  that  high-bred  courtesy  which  is  the  surest 
mark  of  a  gentleman,  all  resort  to  ridicule  or  sneers  in  the 
place  of  argument,  and  all  levity  of  treatment  of  a  sub- 
ject which  he  regarded  as  too  important,  and  involving 
too  weighty  interests,  to  be  lightly  esteemed. 

It  may  be,  that  the  conclusions  to  which  he  finds  him- 
self driven  may  not  meet  the  views  of  all  his  fair  readers, 
but  he  is  confident  that  none  of  them  will  accuse  him  of 
doing  them  injustice,  and  he  hopes,  that  in  a  careful  second 
thought,  they  may  be  convinced  that  his  arguments  are 
such  as  their  reason  approves. 

L.  P.  B. 

BROOKLYN,  Sept.,  1869. 


CONTENTS. 

INTRODUCTION pp.  25—31. 

The  Scriptural  narrative  of  the  creation,  temptation,  and  fall  of  wo- 
man. Comments.  Peculiarity  of  the  creation  of  woman.  The 
joint  dominion  of  the  newly  created  pair.  The  complementary 
nature  of  the  woman.  The  thwarting  of  the  Creator's  purpose 
in  woman's  independent  action — in  her  temptation  and  fall. 
The  consequences.  The  meaning  of  her  sentence.  This*narrativo 
not  a  myth. 

CHAPTER  I pp.  35—44. 

History  of  the  condition  of  woman  in  ancient  times.  The  antedilu- 
vians. The  early  pastoral  or  nomadic  nations.  The  agricultural 
nations.  Hard  fate  of  woman  in  these.  Infanticide.  Suicide. 
Wooing  a  wife  with  the  blow  of  a  club  upon  her  head.  Asiatic 
nations  generally.  Amazons.  Tartars.  China.  The  Brah- 
mins. The  Buddhists.  The  Parsees.  The  Hill  tribes.  Prev- 
alence of  polyandry,  or  several  husbands  to  one  wife.  Condition 
of  women  in  Egypt.  Mohammedan  women.  Their  efforts  in 
propagating  their  faith.  Native  Mohammedan  princesses  in 
India. 

CHAPTER  II pp.  45—55. 

Condition  of  women  in  European  States  and  in  Palestine  before  the 
Christian  era.  Greece.  Athens.  The  wives  and  daughters  of 
citizens.  The  Hetairce,  Sparta.  The  Dorian  States.  Corinth. 
Rome,  in  earlier  and  later  times.  The  Jews,  throughout  their 
history.  Their  comparative  freedom  and  patriotism.  The 
Germans.  Condition  of  women  in  Germany  at  the  present  day. 


10  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  HI pp.  56—66. 

The  condition  of  women  since  the  commencement  of  the  Christian 
era.  The  position  of  Christ  and  his  Apostles  in  reference  to 
women.  The  condition  of  woman  in  the  early  church.  The 
middle  ages.  The  age  of  chivalry.  The  evils  it  perpetuated. 
The  Reformation.  The  fifteenth,  sixteenth,  and  seventeenth  cen- 
turies. The  eighteenth  century.  The  nineteenth.  The  greater 
liberty  and  higher  development  of  women  in  the  present  century 
in  literature,  science,  the  arts,  in  trade,  and  finally  in  the  man- 
agement of  great  financial  and  philanthropic  enterprises.  The 
sad  result  in  the  ruined  health  of  many  of  the  women  engaged 
in  philanthropic  labors. 

CHAPTER  IV pp.  67—83. 

The  present  position  of  woman  before  the  law.  The  provisions  of  the 
common  law  of  England.  Sir  John  Doderidge's  statement.  Law 
and  Divinity  shaking  hands.  Mr.  J.  Stuart  Mill's  statement  of 
the  present  provisions  of  the  English  laws  relative  to  woman. 
Provisions  concerning  the  wife  and  the  mother ;  concerning  sin- 
gle women.  Married  women  undertaking  business  in  their  own 
names.  The  legal  position  of  woman  in  France.  Dotal  and 
communal  law.  The  grisette  system.  ^  Legal  position  of  woman 
in  the  United  States.  Variations  in  statutes  of  different  States. 
Her  condition  in  general  much  better  here  than  in  England  or 
France.  Offices  filled  by  women  in  the  United  States.  Partial 
grant  of  the  suffrage  in  some  localities.  Minnesota.  The 
needed  modifications  of  the  laws. 

CHAPTER  V ' pp.   84—97. 

The  true  relations  of  woman  to  man.  The  opinion  of  Mr.  Mill,  that 
we  have  no  means  of  ascertaining  the  nature  and  capacities  of 
woman.  The  fallacy  of  this  assertion.  Mr.  Mill's  stand-point 
an  unfavorable  one.  The  true  source  of  knowledge  on  this  sub- 
ject. Review  of  the  scriptural  narrative.  Woman  the  comple- 
ment or  help-meet  for  man.  Distinction  in  the  physical,  mental, 
and  moral  characteristics  of  the  man  and  woman.  Blustratious. 
Conclusions  draw.n  from  this  review. 


CONTENTS.  11 

CHAPTER  VI pp.  98—123 

Education  of  woman.  Education  of  girls  in  Great  Britain.  In 
France.  In  Germany.  In  the  United  States.  Public  schools 
Graded  schools.  Colleges  admitting  pupils  of  both  sexes.  Dr. 
Bushnell's  testimony.  President  Mann's.  Mrs.  Ball's.  Dr. 
Bushnell's  view  of  the  advantages  of  this  system.  Female  pro- 
fessorships. "Why  not  of  higher  mathematics  ?  Normal  schools. 
Education  in  female  seminaries,  female  colleges,  boarding-schools^. 
&c.,  &c.  Description  of  the  course  of  study  in  these.  Testi- 
mony of  a  graduate.  The  evil  effects  of  this  so-called  education 
upon  all  the  future  life  of  the  pupils  of  these  seminaries.  Means 
of  remedying  it. 

CHAPTER  VII pp.  124—133 

Employments  of  women.  "Woman  as  wife,  mother,  and  mistress  of 
the  household.  The  model  wife  and  mother.  This  relation  in 
general  precludes  any  other  occupation.  Mr.  Mill's  opinion  OH 
this  point.  Cases  in  which  the  married  woman  is  compelled  to 
resort  to  other  labor  than  that  of  the  household,  for  support  of 
her  family.  The  occupations  open  to  her.  The  sympathy  and 
aid  she  should  receive. 

CHAPTER  VIII pp.  134—146  ' 

Inequality  of  numbers  of  men  and  women  in  d'fferent  countries. 
Great  excess  of  women  in  the  older  States  and  countries.  Dis- 
inclination of  men  to  marry.  Reasons  for  this.  Extravagance 
in  dress.  Incidents.  Terrible  evils  resulting  from  it.  The  ef- 
fects of  it  in  its  relation  to  marriage.  Other  causes  why  womeu 
remain  single.  No  statistics  as  to  the  proportion  who  are  de- 
pendent on  their  own  exertions  for  a  support.  Domestic  ser- 
vants, and  employees  in  manufactories.  Prevalence  of  foreigners 
among  domestic  servants.  Evils  of  this.  Desirableness  of  re- 
turning to  the  old  order  of  things.  Ihe  mistresses  partly  to 
blame.  *  Colored  servants.  The  coming  Chinamen.  A  large  pro- 
portion of  the  employees  in  manufactories,  foreigners. 


12  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IX PP.  U7—157 

Teaching  as  an  occupation.  Success  of  women  in  it.  The  good  old 
times  of  the  summer  and  winter  schools.  The  examining  com- 
mittee. The  change.  Teaching  a  profession.  Capacity  of  wo- 
men for  governing  a  school  well.  The  way  they  do  it.  Teach- 
ing in  female  seminaries,  &c.  The  ability  of  women  to  become 
teachers  in  colleges  and  universities.  History  of  this  subject. 
Instances  in  our  own  times.  The  chairs  they  can  best  fill  Wo- 
men as  preachers  aud  pastors.  The  objections  to  it.  Paul's 
injunctions.  To  what  extent  should  these  be  considered  binding. 
Other  difficulties.  Women  as  public  lecturers. 

CHAPTER  X pp.  158—184 

Women  as  physicians.  Their  particular  sphere.  The  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  their  acquiring  a  medical  education.  Why  they  should 
not  undertake  a  general  practice.  Why  married  women  should 
not  become  physicians.  Why  they  should  not  attempt  the  prac- 
tice of  surgery.  The  troubles  they  will  have  to  encounter — pro- 
fessional and  financial.  Women  in  the  legal  profession.  Not 
qualified  for  advocates  or  judges, .  but  well  adaped  to  convey- 
ancing, drawing  of  papers,  deeds,  wills,  &c.,  and  to  preparation 
of  cases  for  trial,  &c.  Other  professions.  Military  life.  Engineer- 
ing. Surveying.  Commanding  a  steamship.  Being  foreman  of 
a  fire-engine,  &c.,  &c.  These  not  suited  to  woman.  Agriculture  • 
and  horticulture.  Market  gardening.  Small  fruit  farming. 
Keeping  of  bees.  &c.  Fowls.  Floriculture  and  nursery  garden- 
ing as  a  business.  Collection  and  packing  of  flower-seeds.  Chem- 
ical technology.  Fine  arts.  Painting  and  sculpture.  Music. 
Professional  singers  and  players.  No  composers  of  high  rank. 
Women  in  the  dramatic  profession.  Not  a  fit  occupation  for 
women. 

CHAPTER   XT pp.  185— 209 

Other  literary  occupations  of  women.  Authorship.  Novels.  His- 
tory. Biography.  Metaphysics.  Political  economy.  Physical 
science.  Criticism.  The  classics.  Statistics.  Women  as  nov- 


CONTENTS.  13 

\ 

elists.  As  writers  of  juvenile  books.  Extraordinary  success. 
Poetry.  Success  of  women  as  poets.  Poetry  seldom  a  means 
of  winning  a  livelihood.  Novels  seldom  pay  well.  Contribu- 
tions to  magazine  and  periodical  literature.  The  valuable  and 
the  trashy.  Women  as  editors ;  alone,  or  in  conjunction  with 
men.  Lack  of  conscientiousness.  Compensation  of  women  en- 
gaged in  contributing  to  periodicals.  The  late  Mrs.  L.  H.  Sig- 
ourney.  Her  remarkable  conscientiousness,  and  high  sense  of 
honor.  Women  as  clerks  in  government  offices.  As  officers  in 
banks  and  banking  houses,  insurance  offices,  &c.  Advantages 
of  this  to  these  institutions.  Danger  to  the  health  and  life  of 
women.  Women  as  cashiers,  book-keepers,  and  confidential 
clerks  of  wholesale  houses.  Their  employment  in  retail  stores. 
The  objections  against  their  employment  not  worthy  of  notice. 
Women  as  telegraph  operators.  The  work  adapted  to  them. 
Copying.  Photography.  Coloring  of  photographs.  Drawing 
and  engraving  on  wood.  Reasons  why  no  more  succeed. 
Printing.  Women  as  press-feeders.  As  compositors.  Women 
as  ticket-sellers  on  railroads,  steamboats,  &c.  Women  as  con- 
ductors of  manufacturing  and  commercial  enterprises.  Exam- 
ples. Western  Massachusetts.  Connecticut.  Delaware.  Phil- 
adelphia. Miss  Burdett  Coutts.  The  Widow  Clicquot.  Women 
in  Burmah.  Influence  of  mercantile  life  on  the  character  of  wo- 
man. Embroidery  as  an  employment  forwomen.  Other  branch- 
es of  skilled  needlework.  Shopwork.  Over-crowding  in  this 
occupation.  Reasons  for  it.  Unintentional  injury  done  to  wo- 
men in  the  city,  by  women  in  the  country  in  this  business.  The 
fierce  competition.  How  to  be  avoided.  Domestic  service 
greatly  preferable  to  this  constant  and  wretchedly  paid  toil. 

The  sewing  machine.  Its  benefits  and  its  injuries.  The  re- 
sult of  protracted  labor  on  it.  upon  the  nervous  systems  of  wo- 
men. Unskilled  female  labor.  Easy  pauperization  of  the  for- 
eign element  in  this  class.  The  low  and  unseemly  avocations 
practiced  by  foreign  women  of  the  lower  classes.  Chiffonieres, 
scavengers,  &c.  Their  degrading  influence. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XII. pp.  210—224 

The  Social  Evil.  The  dangerous  and  the  criminal  classes.  Pros- 
titutes usually  reckoned  among  the  former.  The  proportion  of 
fallen  women  to  the  whole  number  between  fifteen  and  thirty  in 
community.  The  proportion  smaller  in  the  United  States  than  in 
most  of  the  countries  of  Europe.  Its  causes  not  attributable  to 
inordinate  lust  on  the  part  of  women,  though  the  morals  of  the 
young  of  both  sexes  are  corrupted  by  vile  books,  prints,  news- 
papers, &c.,  and  especially  in  our  schools  and  seminaries.  Fash- 
ionable mode  of  education  a  cause.  How.  Viciousness  of  much 
of  the  so-called  female  education  of  the  day.  Love  of  dress  and 
love  of  ease,  frequent  causes.  Other  alleged  causes.  Seduction. 
Women  as  tempters  of  others  to  ruin,  in  female  seminaries,  Sab- 
bath schools,  &c.  Married  women  among  the  daughters  of 
shame.  Houses  of  assignation.  Facility  of  divorce,  and  crimi- 
nal abortion  among  the  causes.  Emigrant  girls,  ruined  abroad, 
or  on  board  ship.  Advertisement  for  governesses,  by  a  procur- 
ess. "Large  number  of  very  young  girls  who  have  fallen  in  the 
manufacturing  towns.  A  worse  sacrifice  than  that  to  Moloch. 
The  conduct  of  virtuous  women  toward  the  fallen  ones.  "What 
is  the  right  course.  Two  methods  contrasted — the  old  and  the 
new.  Far  greater  success  of  the  latter.  Difficulties  in  the  way 
of  their  reformation.  The  untruthfulness,  volatility,  impul- 
siveness, and  intemperance  of  these  poor  girls.  The  terrible 
temptations  they  have  to  encounter.  The  legal  action  necessary 
to  diminish  this  terrible  vice.  The  great  need  of  moral  and  re- 
formatory action  to  aid  in  the  good  work. 

CHAPTER  XIII pp.  225—238 

No  want  of  employments  for  industrious  and  intelligent  single  women. 
Reasons  why  such  women  have  a  better  chance  of  finding  employ- 
ment than  men.  Their  employments  have  a  greater  similarity  to 
each  other,  and  those  are  less  numerous  who  require  employment 
The  financial  condition  of  the  country  renders  their  employment 
genoraJly  less  precarious  than  those  of  men.  The  pumber  of 
women  lacking  employment  greatly  overstated.  Most  of  those 


CONTENTS.  15 

who  really  lack  it  are  in  too  feeble  health  to  be  able  to  work,  or 
too  indolent  or  weak-minded  to  desire  it.  Sad  condition  of  the 
infirm  poor.  The  inexorableness  of  the  laws  of  trade  on  this 
subject.  The  unwillingness  of  a  certain  class  of  poor  women  to 
accept  work,  unless  under  precisely  such  circumstances  as  they 
desire.  Instances  in  New  York.  Small  classes  who  can  not  at  all 
times  find  sufficient  employment.  The  remedy  for  these,  in  im- 
proving their  knowledge  so  as  to  be  able  to  perform  work  of  a  high- 
er grade.  Ignorance,  heedlessness,  and  uuthrift,  the  causes  of  much 
of  the  wretchedness  of  unskilled  workers,  and  of  much  of  their 
ill-health.  Difficulty  of  remedying  their  condition.  Legislation 
impossible  and  useless.  Charitable  relief  often  ruinous  both  to 
the  recipients  and  the  tax-payers.  Lodging-houses  and  model 
tenement  houses  do  not  reach  them.  Education  and  reformation, 
where  possible,  the  best  remedy.  Why  the  wages  of  women  are 
lower  than  those  of  men.  Where  supply  exceeds  demand,  the 
lowest  is  the  ruling  price.  A  day's  work  of  a  woman,  in  manual 
labor,  a  little  less  than  that  of  a  man.  In  piece-work,  when  done 
as  well,  the  price  should  be  the  same.  Still,  in  view  of  prejudice, 
it  might  be  a  question  whether  it  would  not  be  expedient  to  sub- 
mit at  first  to  a  slight  reduction  in  order  to  secure  the  work. 
Remedies  for  low  wages.  Trades-unions,  co-operation,  better 
practical  education.  In  higher  grades  of  employment,  wages  of 
women  nearly  equal  to  those  of  men.  No  legislation  can  alter  or 
improve  this  matter  ofwages.  The  possession  of  the  ballot  equally 
inefficacious.  The  only  persons  who  could  be  benefited  by  making 
politics  a  profession,  the  educated  class,  who  already  command 
good  pay  for  their  work. 

CHAPTER  XIV pp.  239-252 

History  of  suffrage.  Paternal,  patriarchal,  and  kingly  governments. 
Their  natural  outgrowth  one  from  the  other.  Gradual  develop- 
ment of  an  aristocracy.  Rome.  The  progress  and  abuse  of  suf- 
frage there.  Greece.  The  demos.  Popular  suffrage.  Abandon- 
ment of  suffrage  in  the  Middle  Ages.  Feudal  barons.  The  middle 
class.  Modern  introduction  of  suffrage.  Scandinavia.  Switzer- 


CONTENTS. 

land.  Hungary.  The  Saxon  Witsnagemotc.  The  principle  on 
which  suffrage  was  based  in  all  the  countries  of  Europe.  The 
property  qualification  always  required.  Formerly  real  property 
only  represented.  Of  late  years  personal  property  of  larger  amount 
allowed  a  representation.  The  right  of  single  women  possessing 
property  to  vote  on  this  ground  contested  in  England.  Petitions 
to  Parliament.  Reasons  why  their  petition  was  not  granted.  The 
views  of  the  author  of  "  Woman's  Rights  and  Duties  "  on  this 
subject.  The  facts  which  give  additional  force  to  her  reasoning. 
The  history  of  suffrage  in  the  American  colonies.  Variety  of 
requirements.  The  Declaration  of  Independence.  Fallacy  of  its 
doctrine  of  suffrage  as  now  understood.  Improbability  that  its 
authors  ever  really  attached  any  such  idea  to  their  words.  Dr. 
BushnelTs  view.  Another  possible  sense.  This  equally  untrue. 
The  action  of  the  colonies  on  the  subject  of  suffrage  not  affected 
by  it.  "  Glittering  generalities."  Extension  of  suffrage  for  various 
causes.  Probable  effect  of  the  fifteenth  amendment  of  the  Con- 
stitution. 


CHAPTER  XV  ....................................     pp.  253-264 

What  is  suffrage,  and  in  whom  or  what  does  the  right  of  exercising  it 
inhere?  The  savage  theory  of  the  French  philosophers.  Its 
influence  upon  our  early  statesmen.  Its  fallacies.  The  family 
the  unit  of  society.  What  follows  from  this?  All  suffrage  and  official 
action,  representation.  Further  limitations  of  suffrage  within  the 
just  power  of  society.  What  restrictions  it  may  not  make.  Another 
class  of  proper  restrictions.  Should  property  as  property  be  re- 
presented ?  Justice  of  this.  Methods  of  attaining  it.  Objections  to 
most  of  these  methods  in  the  case  of  unmarried  women  and  widows 
possessing  property.  Other  views  in  regard  to  suffrage.  The 
property  qualification  only.  Manhood  suffrage.  Objections  to  it. 
An  absolute  government  deemed  preferable  by  some.  Suffrage 
but  a  clumsy  way  of  attaining  a  good  government.  The  great 
opportunity  of  frauds  which  will  affect  the  purity  of  the  election. 
The  Chinese  method  of  selecting  officers  by  competitive  examina- 
tion. Its  advantages.  Review  of  the  argument. 


CONTENTS.  17 

CHAPTER  XVI pp.  265-278 

The  variety  of  grounds  on  which  the  suffrage  was  extended  in  tho 
United  States — performing  military  duty,  fire  duty,  having  served 
as  a  volunteer  in  either  of  our  wars.  Abrogation  of  the  freehold 
qualification.  The  three-fifths  rule  in  the  South.  Freedmen  per- 
mitted to  vote  in  Southern  States.  The  injudiciousness  of  this  as' 
a  general  measure.  The  fifteenth  amendment.  Its  possible  evil 
effects.  Only  women  and  minors  left.  "Why  the  suffrage  should 
not  be  conferred  on  these, — or  more  particularly  on  women  as 
women.  This  a  different  question  from  the  English  one,  which 
relates  to  the  bestowal  of  the  suffrage  on  women  as  property- 
holders.  Four  classes  of  objections  to  woman -suffrage — political, 
social,  intellectual,  and  moral.  1st.  Political  objections.  1.  Woman 
has  no  need  of  the  suffrage,  since  she  is  already  represented  in 
the  municipality  and  the  State.  This  representation  much  more 
full  than  can  be  otherwise  attained.  No  reasonable  request  of 
women  unheeded.  Persona1  .nfluence  of  woman  on  legislation. 
Examples :  Vinnie  Ream ;  Mrs.  Husband ;  Mrs.  Cobb.  2.  The 
exercise  of  the  suffrage  by  woman  would  be  an  attempt  to  make 
suffrage  individual  instead  of  representative,  and  so  against  the 
natural  order  of  things.  3.  By  woman-suffrage  women  will  gain 
nothing,  while  they  will  lose  much.  What  they  would  lose. 
Women  almost  everywhere  in  a  minority  at  the  polls.  Their  votes 
would  be  often  perverted  to  evil  purposes.  Their  unfortunate  po- 
sition if  elected  to  the  Legislature,  or  to  Congress.  Their  inability 
to  control  legislation  as  favorably  as  if  they  were  not  members. 
4.  No  possible  plea  in  justification  of  woman's  intrusion  into  the 
realm  of  political  action.  Possible  justification  for  the  admission  of 
some  other  classes — foreigners,  colored  men,  the  disfranchised. 
The  case  of  woman  different.  There  is  no  hostility  to  her.  The 
only  way  to  produce  a  feeling  of  antagonism  would  be  to  give  her 
the  suffrage.  5.  It  could  not  be  in  any  case  a  remedy  for  any  one 
of  the  wrongs  under  which  women  now  suffer.  Not  low  wages, 
want  of  employment,  overcrowding  hi  business,  Ac.  What  are 
the  true  remedies  ? 


18  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XVII pp.  279-295 

Objections  to  suffrage  on  social  grounds.  1.  Women  who  would  make 
themselves  familiar  with  the  political  issues  of  the  day.  Their 
fierce,  earnest  partisanship.  Different  political  views  between 
husband  and  wife.  The  bitterness  engendered  in  the  family  circle. 
Separation  and  estrangement  a  frequent  result.  Dr.  Bushnell's 
vivid  description.  No  rest  for  the  men  or  women  in  a  political 
campaign.  "Women  more  excitable  than  men,  and  their  hostilities 
more  bitter  and  enduring.  The  effect  of  these  intense  political 
excitements  will  be  to  make  them  coarse  and  masculine  in  their 
manners.  The  character  of  women  would  be  seriously  and  per- 
manently injured  by  their  active  participation  in  political  life. 
Illustration.  "Women  of  the  South  in  the  late  war.  Their  treat- 
ment of  a  Union  woman.  Human  nature  much  the  same  every- 
where, and  those  who  now  loathe  the  thought  of  such  conduct, 
might,  in  the  heat  of  political  conflict,  be  betrayed  into  it.  Hazael. 
Nero.  Effect  of  this  excitement  on  the  temper.  Illustration. 
Walter  Savage  Landor.  Effect  upon  the  personal  attractions  bane- 
ful. The  tragedian's  beauty  affected  by  her  simulated  passion. 
Would  be  much  more  so  were  it  real.  The  expression  we  may 
expect  in  the  female  politician  of  the  future.  Political  papers 
conducted  by  women.  What  they  would  probably  be  like.  One 
door  of  hope.  The  whisky  cure  for  the  drunkard.  The  constant 
infusion  of  politics,  morning,  noon,  and  night,  into  the  family 
might  work  a  similar  cure.  Woman-suffrage  in  its  influence  upon 
the  lower  and  more  dependent  classes.  They  will  not,  and  in  the 
nature  of  the  case  can  not,  vote  intelligently.  The  domestic  ser- 
vants, especially  Irish  and  German  Catholics,  will  vote  as  their 
priests  direct.  Antagonism  of  race  and  religion  now  existing  be- 
tween these  and  their  employers.  Instances.  This  would  be 
intensified  by  antagonism  in  politics,  and  would  not  unfrequently 
lead  to  outrages  and  crimes.  Girls  and  women  employed  in  manu- 
factories. These  would  vote  very  generally  under  the  influence 
of  their  employers,  and  sometimes,  doubtless,  under  threats  of 
being  discharged  if  they  ventured  to  vote  differently.  The  whole 
class  of  unskilled  and  partially  skilled  female  laborers  would  vote 


CONTENTS.  19 

for  pay,  and  without  any  intelligence  or  conscientiousness  in  the 
matter,  for  whichever  side  would  pay  best.  The  abandoned  class 
would  vote  "  early  and  often  "  for  the  candidates  to  whom  their 
keepers  had  sold  them.  The  pleasure  of  going  to  the  polls  in 
such  company. 

CHAPTER  XVHI pp.  296-319 

Objections  to  woman-suffrage  from  an  intellectual  point  of  view.  Re- 
currence to  first  principles.  In  all  free  governments,  the  stability 
of  the  government  dependent  upon  the  intelligence  of  the  voting 
population.  If  these  are  ignorant  and  venal,  no  government  can 
long  endure.  From  this  cause,  no  Celtic  nation  has  been  able  to 
maintain  a  republican  government.  To  this  cause  is  also  due 
the  constant  anarchy  and  innumerable  revolutions  of  Mexico, 
and  the  Central  and  South  American  republics.  Chili,  of  late, 
an  exception,  owing  to  its  greater  intelligence.  The  efforts  of 
Don  Diego  F.  Sarmiento,  President  of  the  Argentine  Republic,  to 
educate  his  people,  on  this  very  ground.  The  application  to  the 
United  States.  Three  classes  who  are  already  endangering  our 
national  existence  by  their  ignorance  and  venality — viz. :  the 
ignorant  and  low  voters  at  the  North,  largely  of  foreign  birth  or 
parentage,  and  either  vicious,  or  wholly  under  the  influence  of 
corrupt  politicians  ;  the  "  poor  white  trash  "  of  the  South,  always 
voting  under  influence  and  without  knowledge,  by  whose  votes 
the  South  was  lately  plunged  into  war;  and  the  more  ignorant 
and  stupid  of  the  negroes,  who,  however,  are  earnestly  striving 
to  improve.  If  we  should  add  to  these  the  very  large  classes  of 
ignorant  women  of  the  dependent  classes — servants,  factory  girls 
(of  the  lower  grades),  unskilled  laborers,  and  the  abandoned 
class,  our  peril  would  be  almost  infinitely  increased ;  and  if  to 
these  were  to  be  added  the  Chinese,  we  should  go  down  to  swift 
destruction.  If  we  must  have  universal  suffrage,  let  us  first 
have  universal  education,  compulsory  if  need  be.  Woman-suf- 
frage from  the  moral  point  of  view.  Our  visions  of  the  lost  Eden. 
The  sad  sight  of  a  pure  and  virtuous  woman  plunging  into  politi- 
cal strife.  The  fall  of  an  ingenuous  and  pure-minded  young  man. 


20  CONTENTS. 

"Woman,  falling  farther,  falls  faster  and  deeper  than  man.  Man 
•would  be  no  match  for  her  in  schemes  of  wickedness.  The 
women  of  Europe  who  have  been  conspicuous  in  politics.  Their 
depravity.  The  unhallowed  influence  which  a  female  politician 
would  exert  over  her  children.  The  moral  influence  of  political 
intrigues  upon  the  lower  classes.  Servant  girls  would  become 
intolerable  with  the  consciousness  of  their  equal  rights  of  voting 
with  their  mistresses.  Demoralizing  effect  of  the  corruption  in 
gaining  the  votes  of  the  dependent  classes.  The  immoral  effect 
of  bringing  to  the  polls  the  abandoned  class.  General  disposi- 
tion of  all  good  governments  to  keep  this  class  out  of  sight,  that 
the  moral  sense  of  the  community  might  not  be  offended ;  but 
voting  would  thrust  them  prominently  forward.  Evil  effect  of 
such  a  course  on  young  children.  The  mother's  dilemma  The 
presence  of  these  bad  women  at  the  polls,  not  only  an  annoyance, 
but  a  source  of  demoralization.  Another  phase  of  the  question. 
Office-holding  and  office-seeking.  Daniel  D.  Tompkins  on  the 
aspiration  for  the  Presidency.  Woman  would  be  quite  as  zealous 
as  man  in  this  pursuit.  The  way  of  securing  nominations  for 
elective  offices.  The  primaries.  Supposed  experience  of  a 
friend  of  Miss  Anna  Dickinson  who  should  seek  her  nomination 
for  Congress.  Her  attendance  on  the  primary.  Its  organization. 
Her  canvass  for  delegates.  "Want  of  success.  This  no  over- 
drawn picture.  Primaries  in  the  rural  districts  not  as  bad ;  but 
in  the  cities,  nests  of  unclean  birds.  The  "Western  practice. 
Nomination  by  friends.  Stump-speaking  in  the  open  air.  Treble 
voice.  The  result.  Injurious  influence  of  such  scenes.  If  a 
woman  were  elected  to  any  legislative  office,  her  perils  would  be 
great.  Corruption.  Other  difficulties  hi  the  way  of  their  success 
as  legislators.  "Women  as  diplomatists.  Reasons  against  it. 

CHAPTER   XIX pp.  320-341 

Reply  to  the  arguments  .of  the  friends  of  woman-suffrage.  J.  Stuart 
Mill.  His  position  of  the  equality  of  woman  with  man.  The 
conclusion  drawn,  that  womau  should  have  the  right  of  suffrage 
to  protect  herself  from  the  oppression  of  his  brute  force.  Reply 


CONTENTS.  21 

to  this  argument.  Mr.  Mill  argues  from  the  Deistic  stand-point, 
but  reasons  incorrectly,  even  from  that.  Illustration.  The 
orange.  Suffrage  needless  for  woman,  because  of  her  complement- 
ary nature.  Other  arguments  of  Mr.  Mill.  Inconsistency  with 
the  first.  Replies.  Sophisms.  Unfortunate  illustration.  "Wo- 
man-suffrage affords  no  guaranty  of  just  and  equal  consideration 
equal  to  that  which  they  now  possess.  Other  arguments.  Refin- 
ing and  purifying  influence  of  woman  over  the  polls.  Mr. 
Beecher's  position.  Reply.  The  snow.  More  bad  women  than 
good  among  the  voters.  The  direction  from  which  a  real  reform 
must  come.  The  emancipation  of  women.  Emancipation  from 
what  ?  Not  from  men,  husbands,  household  drudgery,  fashion, 
or  display.  Not  from  civil  disabilities.  Not  from  the  want  of 
power  to  vote.  Why.  Woman-suffrage  in  New  Jersey,  from 
1776  to  1807.  Narrative  of  Lucy  Stone  and  Antoinette  Brown 
Blackwell  concerning  it.  Note.  Additional  facts  by  Mra.  Ball 
and  Mr.  Whitehead.  Conclusions  from  the  narrative. 

CHAPTER  XX pp.  342-372. 

The  plea  that  the  ballot  will  raise  the  social  consideration  of  women, 
insure  them  fair  wages  and  abundant  work,  and  rouse  their  ener- 
gies. Absurdity  of  this  proposition.  Miss  Dodge's  reply  to  this 
plea.  Her  answer  to  the  other  arguments  of  the  advocates  of 
woman-suffrage.  The  clearness  and  force  of  her  arguments. 
Reasons  for  the  present  excitement  in  regard  to  woman-suffrage. 
The  heroines  of  the  war.  Their  grand  work.  The  change  in 
their  habits  of  thought  and  feeling.  The  work  on  which  some 
entered.  Philanthropy.  The  ambition  of  others  for  great  reforms. 
Their  zeal  for  the  ballot  for  woman.  Their  reasoning  on  the 
subject.  The*  obstacles  they  encountered.  The  lessons  they 
have  to  learn.  Christ  not  only  the  type  of  the  complete  and  per- 
fect humanity,  but  of  the  subject-condition.  The  work  to  which 
these  brave  women  are  called.  The  new  Inner  Mission.  Other 
fields  of  effort : — Art — Music — The  science  of  dress — Supervision 
of  education — The  management  of  charitable  and  benevolent  insti- 
tutions— Religious  activities — Foreign  missionaries — Home  and 


22  CONTENTS. 

city  missionaries.  The  exertion  of  influence  for  good,  upon 
young  men  who  are  strangers  in  our  large  cities.  Deaconesses. 
Their  work.  Kaiserswerth.  Strasburg.  Others.  English  Sis- 
terhoods. Sisters  of  Charity.  Deaconesses  and  Sisters  in  Amer- 
ica. Summary. 

CHAPTER  XXI pp.  373-392 

Weakness  of  the  arguments  adduced  by  the  popular  advocates  of 
woman-suffrage.  Effect  of  this  frothy  declaration  upon  the  com- 
munity. The  "Working  Women's  Association  in  New  York. 
The  disgust  of  sensible  people.  The  Chicago  Sorosis.  The 
organ  of  woman  suffrage  there.  Miss  Beecher's  paper.  "  Gail 
Hamilton's"  expose.  Women  in  general  opposed  to  it.  The 
argument  that  if  any  women  want  to  vote,  all  women  should  be 
allowed  to  do  so.  Application  to  minors.  Other  forms  of  the 
proposition.  Motives  in  the  preparation  of  the  work.  Preva- 
lence of  these  views.  Progress.  Not  always  in  the  right  direc- 
tion. The  maiden  of  forty  years  ago.  The  wife  of  the  same 
period.  The  life  of  the  household  at  the  present  day.  The 
educational  errors  of  the  present  day  in  regard  to  women.  Ne- 
cessity of  physical  and  moral  training.  Of  what  kind  shall  it  bo  ? 
Good  effects  of  the  present  agitation.  Indications  for  good. 
Leave-taking. 

APPENDIX  A pp.    393-412 

Miss  Beecher's  Essay. 

APPENDIX  B pp.  413-429 

The  marriage  question.  Reasons  for  not  taking  it  up  in  the  body  of 
the  work.  Mr.  Mill's  avowals.  What  marriage  is.  No  mere 
partnership.  Views  of  some  of  the  other  leaders  of  the  move- 
ment. Pernicious  effect  of  these  doctrines.  "Gail  Hamilton's" 
dangerous  doctrines.  The  doctrine  of  the  equality  of  the  sexes 
at  the  basis  of  these.  Its  errors.  The  able  argument  on  that 
subject  by  the  author  of  "  Woman's  Rights  and  Duties." 


CONTENTS.  23 


APPENDIX  C pp.  430-447 

Recent  English  works  on  this  subject.  "  Woman's  "Work  and  Woman's 
Culture."  A  series  of  Essays.  "  Ourselves."  Essays  by  Mrs. 
E.  Lynn  Linton.  Mr.  John  Boyd-Kinnear  on  the  "  Social  Posi- 
tion of  Women."  Note.— Mrs.  Linton  on  "  The  Girl  of  the  Period." 


INTRODUCTION. 


IN  the  investigation  of  any  scientific  question,  there  is  no 
course  so  satisfactory  as  that  of  beginning  with  first 
principles ;  the  foundation  being  well  settled,  the  rearing 
of  a  suitable  superstructure  upon  it  is  a  work  of  compara- 
tive ease. 

Let  us,  then,  in  the  study  of  the  difficult  and  intricate 
subject  before  us,  revert  to  the  Scriptural  history  of  the 
creation  of  the  first  pair,  and  see  what  light  it  throws  upon 
the  true  relations  of  the  two  sexes  to  each  other. 

In  that  wonderfully  vivid,  yet  condensed,  narrative  of 
the  creation  and  fall  of  man,  contained  in  the  first  three 
chapters  of  Genesis,  the  following  are  the  principal  pas- 
sages which  refer  to  this  subject:  "And  God  said,  Let  us 
make  man  in  our  image,  after  our  likeness :  and  let  them 
have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  over  the  fowl 
of  the  air,  and  over  the  cattle,  and  over  all  the  earth,  and 
over  every  creeping  thing  that  creepeth  upon  the  earth. 
So  God  created  man  in  his  own  image,  in  the  image  of 

God  created  he  him :  male  and  female  created  he  them. 
2 


26  INTRODUCTION. 

And  God  blessed  them,  and  God  said  unto  them,  Be  fruit- 
ful and  multiply,  and  replenish  the  earth  and  subdue  it : 
and  have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  over  the 
fowl  of  the  air,  and  over  every  living  thing  that  moveth 
upon  the  earth.." — Genesis  I.  26-28. 

In  the  second  chapter,  the  inspired  writer  enters  some- 
what more  fully  into  the  details  of  man's  creation,  and  the 
circumstances  which  attended  the  predetermined  creation 
of  woman : 

"  And  the  LORD  God  formed  man  out  of  the  dust  of  the 
ground,  and  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life ; 
and  man  became  a  living  soul.  And  the  LORD  planted  a 
garden  eastward  in  Eden ;  and  there  he  put  the  man 
whom  he  had  formed.  And  out  of  the  ground  made  the 
LORD  God  to  grow  every  tree  that  is  pleasant  to  the  sight, 
and  good  for  food :  the  tree  of  life  also  in  the  midst  of 
the  garden,  and  the  tree  of  knowledge  of  good  and  evil. 

And  the  LORD  God  took  the  man,  and  put 

him  into  the  garden  of  Eden,  to  dress  it  and  to  keep  it. 
And  the  LORD  God  commanded  the  man,  saying,  Of  every 
tree  of  the  garden  thou  mayest  freely  eat :  but  of  the  tree 
of  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  thou  shalt  not  eat  of  it : 
for  in  the  day  that  thou  eatest  thereof,  thou  shalt  surely 
die.  And  the  LORD  God  said,  It  is  not  good  that  the  man 
should  be  alone :  I  will  make  him  an  help  meet  for  him. 
And  out  of  the  ground  the  LORD  God  formed  every  beast 


INTRODUCTION.  27 

of  the  field,  and  every  fowl  of  the  air:  and  brought  them 
unto  Adam  to  see  what  he  would  call  them :  and  whatso- 
ever Adam  called  every  living  creature,  that  was  the  name 
thereof.  And  Adam  gave  names  to  all  cattle,  and  to  the 
fowl  of  the  air,  and  to  every  beast  of  the  field ;  but  for 
Adam  there  was  not  found  an  help  meet  for  him.  And 
the  LORD  God  caused  a  deep  sleep  to  fall  upon  Adam,  and 
he  slept :  and  he  took  one  of  his  ribs,  and  closed  up  the 
flesh  instead  thereof:  and  the  rib,  which  the  LORD  God 
had  taken  from  man,  made  he  a  woman,  and  brought  her 
unto  the  man.  And  Adam  said,  This  is  now  bone  of  my 
bones,  and  flesh  of  my  flesh :  she  shall  be  called  woman 
(Hebrew  ISHA,  feminine  form  of  ISH,  man)  because  she 
was  taken  out  of  man.  Therefore  shall  a  man  leave  his 
father  and  his  mother,  and  shall  cleave  unto  his  wife :  and 
they  shall  be  one  flesh."— Genesis  II.  7-10,  15-24. 

Again,  after  the  sad  history  of  the  temptation  and  the 
fall,  after  sentencing  the  serpent,  as  the  penalty  of  his 
crime,  to  become  thenceforward  a  creeping  thing,  eating 
dust  all  the  days  of  his  life,  Jehovah  said  to  the  woman : 
"I  will  greatly  multiply  thy  sorrow  and  thy  conception; 
in  sorrow  thou  shalt  bring  forth  children ;  and  thy  desire 
shall  be  to  thy  husband  (margin,  thou  shalt  be  subject 

to  thy  husband),  and  he  shall  rule  over  thee And 

Adam  called  his  wife  Eve  (Heb.  Chavah,  Living :)  because 
she  was  the  mother  of  all  living." — Genesis  III.  16,  50 


28  INTRODUCTION. 

There  are  several  points  worthy  of  particular  notice  in 
this  terse,  condensed  narrative;  among  these  we  may 
specify,  first,  the  peculiarity  of  the  creation  of  woman.  In 
the  creation  of  all  the  inferior  orders  of  animals,  both  sexes 
were  called  into  existence  at  the  same  time  and  from  the 
same  material;  while  in  the  human  race,  man  was  first 
created,  and  then,  after  a  time,  woman  taken  from  his  side 
to  be  a  help  meet,  or  fit,  for  him.  This  intimacy  or  oneness 
of  structure  indicated  a  more  perfect  unity  of  nature  and 
purpose  than  was  possible  in  the  case  of  inferior  animals, 
or  than  would  be  in  any  of  the  descendants  of  this  first 
pair,  not  of  different  sexes.  They  were  henceforth  not 
twain,  but  one  flesh;  one  body  and  one  soul,  though  in 
differing  forms.  Sprung  from  a  common  source,  inspired 
by  common  thoughts  and  emotions,  there  could  be  in 
their  case  no  question  of  equality,  any  more  than  of  the 
right  hand  and  the  left ;  they  were  parts  of  one  whole,  and 
neither  was  complete  without  the  other. 

It  was  a  natural  consequence  of  this  unity  of  aim  and 
purpose,  that,  though  Adam  was  first  created,  and  before 
the  creation  of  the  woman,  gave  the  names  to  all  the  in- 
ferior orders  of  animals,  joint  dominion  over  these  animals 
was  given  to  the  pair.  Twice  was  the  command  repeated, 
"  Let  them  have  dominion,"  &c.  Together  they  were  to 
subdue  the  earth,  together  to  dress  and  keep  the  garden  of 
Eden.  But  one  will,  but  one  purpose,  was  to  animate 


INTRODUCTION.  29 

them  both  in  the  performance  of  their  duties,  and  that  a 
joint,  a  united  will. 

We  may  justly  and  fairly  deduce  from  this  narrative 
what  was  the  Creator's  purpose  in  this  creation  of  the  first 
human  pair ;  they  were  to  he  united  by  the  closest  of  all 
possible  bonds,  that  of  a  common  origin  and  nature  ;  they 
were  to  be  parts  of  each  other,  each  the  other's  comple- 
ment ;  the  woman  was  to  be  a  helper  or  aid,  meet,  fit,  or 
adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  man;  and  these  preliminaries 
observed,  they  were  to  be  actuated  by  a  common  purpose 
and  aim,  and  to  possess  a  common  dominion  over  the 
inferior  animals,  and  the  earth  they  were  to  subdue. 

Has  this  purpose  and  plan  of  the  Creator  been  thwarted 
and  violated  ?  It  has,  in  the  temptation  and  fall.  Part- 
ing from  Adam,  and  exercising  her  separate  will  and  judg- 
ment, the  woman  fell  a  prey  to  the  tempter's  wiles,  and, 
still  by  the  separate  exercise  of  her  will  and  powers  of 
persuasion,  induced  her  husband,  to  become  a  partaker 
with  her  in  the  transgression.  What  was  the  consequence 
of  this  assumption  of  separate  and  individual  power? 
We  have  it  in  the  sentence  pronounced  on  her  by  Jehovah. 
"  Thy  desire  shall  be  to  thy  husband  (more  correctly,  as 
the  margin  has  it,  '  Thou  shalt  be  in  subjection  to  thy  hus 
band'),  and  he  shall  rule  over  thee." 

It  is  as  if  he  had  said  to  the  erring  culprit,  "Thou 
didst  forget  that  thou  wast  to  be  one  with  thy  husband, 


30  INTRODUCTION. 

in  thought,  in  counsel,  and  in  will;  thou  didst  listen  to 
this  inferior  creature  who  is  henceforth  to  crawl  abjectly 
upon  the  earth,  in  fear  and  terror  of  the  race  he  has  de- 
ceived ;  henceforth,  though  the  sway  over  the  inferior  cre- 
ation is  not  taken  wholly  from  thee,  yet  thou  too  shalt  be 
subject ;  the  dominion  shall  no  longer  be  a  joint  one,  but 
thy  husband  shall  rule  over  thee,  as  well  as  over  the  brute 
creation." 

Does  the  sentence  seem  severe,  as  compared  with  that 
inflicted  on  the  man?  It  was  because  woman  was  the 
greater  transgressor ;  yet  was  it  mingled  with  mercy.  Not 
only  was  there  the  dim  promise  of  the  coming  Redeemer 
to  cheer  her  sorrows,  and  give  hope  of  a  better  Eden,  but 
he  to  whom  her  desire  was  to  be,  and  who  was  hence- 
forth to  rule  over  her,  was  bone  of  her  bone,  and  flesh  of 
her  flesh ;  and  one  bound  to  her  by  such  tender  ties  could 
hardly  be  a-  tyrant  in  his  sway.  Then,  too,  ho  whose  labor 
had  hitherto  been  but  a  joyous  pastime,  was  henceforth 
condemned  to  hard,  wearisome,  unproductive  toil,  and,  from 
very  weariness,  could  not  become  a  severe  task-master. 
It  is  worthy  of  notice  in  this  connection,  that  up  to  this 
time  Adam  had  only  called  his  help  meet  Isha,  woman — 
henceforth  she  was  Chavah,  or  Eve^  the  mother  of  all 
living. 

There  are  those  who  profess  to  regard  this  narrative  of 
the  creation  and  fall  of  man,  as  only  an  allegory  or  myth ; 


INTRODUCTION.  31 

but  the  fact  stated  by  one  of  the  ablest  of  living  philolo- 
gists *  before  the  Royal  Geographical  Society  of  London, 
that  there  is  not,  in  all  the  East,  a  nation  whose  earliest 
traditions  of  the  creation  do  not  include  a  serpent,  a  fruit- 
tree  and  a  woman,  would  seem  to  be  conclusive  that  if  an 
allegory,  it  must  have  originated  in  the  infancy  of  the 
race,  and  have  had  a  substratum  of  fact  for  its  basis.  For 
ourselves,  we  have  no  disposition  to  discard  a  record  which 
bears  upon  its  face  such  marked  evidence  of  its  truthful- 
ness and  inspiration. 

Having  then  shown  what  was  the  original  relation  of  the 
sexes  to  each  other,  and  how  far  it  was  modified  by  the 
fall,  we  have  next  to  learn  what  has  been  the  condition  of 
woman  in  the  ages  which  have  since  passed — what  forms 
of  oppression,  cruelty,  and  wrong  have  illustrated  the  pre- 
diction, "  he  shall  rule  over  thee."  Unworthy  and  dishon- 
orable as  this  tyranny  of  brute  force  has  been,  and  terrible 
as  have  been,  in  many  lands,  the  cruelties  inflicted  on  its 
innocent  victims,  a  brief  review  of  the  condition  of  women 
in  ancient  times  and  different  nations,  may  not  prove  unin- 
structive. 

*Mr.  Ferguson. 


CONDITION  OF  WOMEN. 


CHAPTER    I. 

THE  knowledge  we  have  of  the  condition  of 
antediluvian  woman  is  very  meager,  but  some 
items  of  it  are  significant.  In  the  Cainite  branch, 
the  women  possessed  extraordinary  beauty,  and 
powers  of  fascination  equal  to  those  which  have 
since  made  such  trouble  in  the  world.  That  some 
of  them  were,  also,  endowed  with  high  intellect- 
ual abilities,  may  be  fairly  inferred  from  the  fact 
of  their  being  the  counselors  of  their  husbands, 
and  from  the  energy  and  inventive  talent  of  their 
progeny.  Polygamy  was  early  practiced  by  these 
bold,  bad  men,  but  there  is  no  evidence  of  any 
special  depression  or  degradation  of  the  sex  in  the 
period  before  the  flood.  > 

After  the  deluge,  the  condition  of  woman  grad- 
ually grew  worse,  though  in  some  nations  it  was 
much  lower  than  in  others.  By  slow  degrees 
men  sank  into  the  savage  state,  and  in  that  condi- 
tion, selfishness  being  the  governing  law,  woman 
was  treated  with  greater  or  less  consideration, 
2*  o 


gg  CONDITION  OF  WOMEN. 

according  as  she  could  accomplish  more  or  less  of 
the  labor  necessary  for  bread-winning.  In  the 
pastoral  nations,  she  had  the  care  of  the  tent, 
cooked  the  food,  provided  for  the  guests,  and 
though  required  to  occupy  a  separate  tent,  and 
in  general  to  exhibit  great  reverence  and  respect 
for  her  husband,  addressing  him  always  by  the 
title  of  Lord  or  Master,  she  possessed  consider- 
able power  and  authority  in  household  matters, 
and  in  her  marriage  her  consent  was  necessary  to 
its  validity.  Polygamy  as  well  as  concubinage 
was  common,  but  usually  the  first  wife  retained 
the  substantial  authority  over  the  household. 

In  the  agricultural  nations,  where  the  residence 
was  fixed,  the  lot  of  woman  was  harder,  and  her 
authority  and  privileges  more  restricted.  She 
was,  except  in  the  case  of  the  highest  classes,  re- 
quired to  perform  her  full  share,  and  generally 
more  than  her  share,  of  the  severe  physical  toil 
necessary  in  agricultural  life.  She  plowed  the 
soil,  and  among  some  nations,  harnessed  with  the 
ox  or  the  ass,  drew  the  plow.  She  delved  in  the 
earth,  gathered  the  crops,  and  in  addition  per- 
formed all  the  menial  household  duties,  even  to 
grinding  the  corn,  slaughtering  the  animals  for 
food,  and  preparing  the  repast.  In  many  coun- 
tries, she  was  not  allowed  to  partake  of  the  food 
thus  prepared  until  the  husband  had  eaten  to 
satiety,  and  then  humbly  contented  herself  with 
what  he  left  Women  were  not  permitted  any 


CONDITION  OF  WOMEN.  37 

control  over  their  male  children,  and  these,  at  an 
early  age,  imitated  their  fathers,  by  treating  them 
with  cruelty  and  scorn. 

Hard  was  the  fate  of  woman  in  these  nations. 
Her  existence  made  wretched  by  excessive  toil, 
continued  throughout  the  entire  life,  with  no  kind 
words,  no  soothing  attention,  unloved  and  unlov- 
ing, and  devoid  of  hope  in  the  future,  with  no 
knowledge  of  another  life,  it  is  not  wonderful  that 
she  should  destroy  the  lives  of  her  female  chil- 
dren, lest  they  should  experience  the  same  mis- 
eries, or  that  she  should  voluntarily  terminate  a 
life  so  utterly  hopeless. 

From  this  oppression,  which  thus  made  the 
woman  a  slave,  the  resort  to  physical  violence 
was  an  easy  step — and  we  find,  accordingly,  that 
among  some  of  the  nations  of  antiquity,  as  among 
the  degraded  Australian  tribes,  when  the  man 
would  select  a  wife,  he  crept  up  behind  her  stealth- 
ily, and  felled  her  to  the  earth  by  a  heavy  blow 
of  his  club,  and  flinging  her  upon  his  shoulder, 
strode  away  to  his  dwelling.  If  she  recovered, 
she  became  his  wife,  and  this  first  rude  assault 
was  but  the  prelude  to  other  cruelties,  which  her 
lord  and  master  inflicted  at  his  will.  If  she  died 
from  the  blow,  there  was  no  blame ;  his  wooing 
had  been  unsuccessful,  and  another  maiden  must 
undergo  the  same  ordeal. 

The  Asiatic  nations  generally,  in  the  early  ages, 
treated  their  wives  with  cruelty,  the  higher  classes 


gg  CONDITION  OP  WOMEN. 

making  an  occasional  exception  (more  apparent 
than  real)  of  some  favorite,  who,  while  her  beauty 
and  powers  of  fascination  lasted,  ruled  her  ruler, 
and  had  her  every  wish  gratified  ;  but  when -her 
beauty  waned,  or  the  capricious  despot  was  won 
by  another  face,  was  cast  aside,  neglected,  and 
often  consigned  to  prison  or  death. 

The  power  of  the  husband  to  put  his  wife  to 
death,  either  with  or  without  cause,  was  very 
generally  recognized  by  the  Oriental  nations.  Her 
condition  was  more  lowly  and  abject  than  that  of 
the  slave,  while  it  did  not  possess  the  slave's  im- 
munities. 

It  is  no  marvel  that  there  should  have  been 
occasional  revolts  from  this  oppression,  or,  that, 
in  rare  instances,  women  should  have  availed 
themselves  of  the  power  of  association,  and  have 
formed  nations,  in  which  no  man  was  admitted  ex- 
cept in  a  menial  capacity.  These  protests  against 
the  cruelty  of  their  oppressors  were,  however,  in 
their  nature,  of  but  brief  duration,  and,  though 
they  maintained  their  position  bravely  for  a  time, 
they  eventually  again  came  under  the  yoke. 

The  Tartars,  like  other  nomadic  and  pastoral 
nations,  while  still  leading  the  nomadic  life,  treated 
their  women  with  more  respect,  and  made  their 
slavery  less  galling  than  most  of  the  Orientals ; 
yet  even  among  them  the  power  of  life  and  death 
was  in  the  hands  of  the  husband  and  father,  and 
their  oppression,  though  not  physically  degrading, 


CONDITION  OF  WOMEN.  39 

was  hardly  less  complete  than  that  of  other  Asiatic 
tribes.  . 

The  doctrines  of  Confut-see  (Confucius),  in 
China,  inculcated  a  more  liberal  and  just  treat- 
ment of  women ;  but  the  actual  condition  of  the 
sex  in  China  has  been,  except,  perhaps,  in  the 
very  highest  classes,  in  all  ages,  one  of  deplor. 
able  depression.  The  idea  that  they  were  to  be 
regarded  as  slaves,  and  without  rights,  very  early 
took  possession  of  the  Oriental  mind ;  and  their 
religious  systems — Brahminism,  Buddhism,  and 
later,  Mohammedanism,  have  all  encouraged  this 
view.  In  the  Brahrninic  doctrine  of  transmigra- 
tion of  souls,  one  of  the  most  fearful  calamities 
which  could  befall  the  believer  was  to  be  born  a 
female.  To  enter  the  body  of  an  elephant,  a 
horse,  an  ass,  a  dog,  or  even  a  pariah,  might  be 
endured,  but  to  become  a  woman  was  to  touch 
the  lowest  depth  of  wretchedness.  More  de- 
graded than  the  outcast  pariah,  her  touch  more 
polluting  to  the  high  caste  and  devout  Brahmin 
than  that  of  an  unclean  dog,  she  was  made  to 
feel  that  her  existence  was  something  to  be  en- 
dured with  difficulty,  and  that  he  was  to  be  ac- 
counted happy,  who,  by  any  means,  should  dismiss 
her  from  this  life,  and  give  her  the  possibility  of 
entering  upon  some  other  form  of  existence  than 
that  of  woman. 

The  Buddhists  treated  woman  with  less  cruelty, 
and  recognized  her  ability  to  take  a  part  in  busi- 


40  CONDITION    OP    WOMEN. 

ness  affairs,  but  they  denied  her  the  boon  of  par- 
ticipation in  the  higher  rites  and  privileges  of 
their  religion,  and  declared  her  utterly  incapable 
of  attaining  to  the  bliss  of  nirv-vana,  or  the  state 
of  absorption  of  all  earthly  consciousness  in  the 
contemplation  of  the  perfections  of  the  divine  na- 
ture. With  them  the  woman  was,  in  fact,  a  soul- 
less drudge,  of  whose  powers  of  usefulness  the 
man  was  to  avail  himself,  and  whom,  from  motives 
of  selfishness,  he  should  treat  with  some  kindness ; 
but  who  was,  nevertheless,  in  all  the  higher  rela- 
tions of  life,  an  inferior  being. 

One  other  form  of  religion  prevailed  extensively 
in  some  portions  of  the  East  in  the  ages  preceding 
the  advent  of  Christianity,  and  is  undoubtedly 
entitled  to  the  claim  of  being  a  nearer  approach 
to  the  religion  of  the  early  patriarchs  than  either 
of  those  we  have  named.  It  was  the  system  of 
Zoroaster,  or  Zartusht,  as  developed  in  the  Zend- 
Avesta. 

The  early  Persians  and  Medes,  and  a  part  of 
the  inhabitants  of  Arabia,  as  well  as  the  colonies 
which  went  out  from  Persia,  were  the  adherents 
of  this  faith,  which  has  been  incorrectly  stigma- 
tized as  fire-worship.  They  were  believers  in  a 
good  and  an  evil  spirit,  the  former  omnipotent 
and  omniscient ;  the  latter  inferior  in  power  and 
knowledge,  but  possessing  great  and  malign  in- 
fluence over  the  human  race.  They  also  recognized 
inferior  spirits,  subject  to  these  two,  active  both 


CONDITION    OF    WOMEN.  43 

for  good  and  evil.  The  Parsees,  or  Guebres,  as 
they  were  sometimes  called,  while  assigning  to 
their  women  a  subordinate  position,  both  in  power 
and  authority,  treated  them  with  great  consider- 
ation, and  made  them  participators  in  all  their 
religious  rites.  Their  position  in  the  nation  was, 
in  many  particulars,  similar  to  that  of  the  Jewish 
women,  hereafter  desgribed. 

Among  the  hill  tribes  of  India  there  were  some 
which  did  not  give  in  their  adhesion  either  to 
Brahminism  or  Buddhism,  but  retained  some  of 
the  earlier  Aryan  forms  of  worship.  In  several 
of  these  tribes,  owing,  perhaps,  partly  to  the 
excess  of  the  number  of  men  over  the  women, 
polyandry  was,  and  still  is,  prevalent,  many  of 
the  women  having  two,  three,  or  more  husbands, 
and  the  authority  and  control  of  the  home  being 
vested  in  the  wife.  As  these  hill  tribes  have 
been  for  ages  low  in  the  scale  of  civilization,  and 
for  the  most  part  poor,  the  condition  of  neither 
the  women  noi  the  men  was  specially  desirable. 

In  Egypt,  where  at  one  time  civilization  had 
attained  a  higher  point  than  in  any  other  country 
which  practiced  the .  worship  of  idols,  we  obtain 
occasional  glimpses  of.  the  condition  of  woman 
from  the  Scriptures,  as  well  as  from  the  hiero- 
glyphic records  of  the  people. 

In  the  higher  classes,  they  possessed  consider- 
able liberty  and  influence,  as  is  seen  in  the  case 
of  Potiphar's  wife,  Pharaoh's  daughter,  and  later, 


44  CONDITION    OP    WOMEN. 

Solomon's  wife.  But  as  the  entire  population, 
except  the  priesthood,  the  royal  family,  and  the 
chief  nobles  of  the  court,  were  slaves  of  the  reign- 
ing king,  the  condition  of  the  women  of  the  mid- 
dle and  lower  classes  might  naturally  be  supposed 
to  be  one  of  humiliation  and  toil.  The  pictorial 
records,  discovered  by  Sir  Gardiner  Wilkinson  and 
others,  render  it  certain  that  this  was  the  fact. 
Women  are  found  engaged  in  all  descriptions  of 
menial  labor,  and  the  expression  of  fear  and  ab- 
jectness  in  their  faces  is  universal.  Under  the 
Ptolemies,  the  nation  had  lapsed  into  a  condition 
of  gross  licentiousness,  which  made  the  degrada- 
tion of  woman  complete.  In  no  nation  on  the 
globe  was  chastity  so  rare,  or  womanly  virtue  so 
impossible. 

The  influence  of  Mohammedanism  on  the  con- 
dition of  women  belongs  more  properly  to  our 
consideration  of  the  period  subsequent  to  the 
Christian  era ;  but  as  most  of  the  Mohammedan 
countries  are  either  Asiatic  or  African,  it  may, 
perhaps,  as  well  come  into  the  present  chapter. 

Mohammed  was,  by  birth  and  education,  an 
Arab,  and  his  views  of  the  character  and  condi- 
tion of  woman  were  neither  better  nor  worse  than 
those  of  his  nation  generally.  In  denying  to  them 
the  possession  of  a  soul,  or  the  enjoyments  of  a 
future  life,  he  demonstrated  how  low  was  the  Ori- 
ental appreciation  of  women,  and  how  little  aid  he 
expected  from  her  in  the  propagation  of  his  new 


CONDITION    OP   WOMEN.  45 

doctrines.  As,  however,  his  religious  system  was 
to  appeal  to  the  passions  of  men  for  its  sanction, 
and  especially  to  the  voluptuous  tastes  of  the 
Oriental  nature,  he  was  compelled  to  provide  his 
houris,  as  a  substitute  for  women,  in  the  compan- 
ionship of  man  in  Paradise. 

The  Mohammedans  have  ever  regarded  woman 
as  a  slave,  and  while,  among  the  higher  classes, 
she  has,  like  other  slaves,  had  her  brief  hour  of 
favoritism,  among  the  lower  classes  her  condi- 
tion has  been  abject  and  depressed.  The  life  of 
the  women  of  the  harem  is  one  of  ignorance,  indo- 
lence, petty  jealousies,  and  intrigues,  and  often 
of  almost  unendurable  ennui.  Secluded  from  all 
society  except  that  of  their  own  sex,  and  the 
mutilated  slaves  to  whose  care  they  are  assigned, 
their  life  is  aimless  and  wretched. 

The  women  of  the  lower  classes,  though  less 
strictly  guarded,  lead  a  life  of  severe  and  constant 
toil,  enlivened  by  no  hope  in  the  future ;  yet  the 
women  are,  as  a  rule,  more  violent  and  fanatical 
in  their  adherence  to  Mohammedanism,  and  more 
zealous  in  its  propagation,  than  the  men.  In 
those  countries  of  Africa  (in  the  Soudan  and 
Senegambia,  and  the  oases  of  the  desert)  in 
which  an  active  propagandism  of  the  Mohamme- 
dan faith  is  now  in  progress,  the  efforts  of  the 
missionaries  of  Islam  are  directed  exclusively  to 
the  conversion  of  women,  secure  that  they  will 
prove  the  most  active  emissaries  of  the  faith. 


46  CONDITION    OP    WOMEN. 

Mr.  J.  Stuart  Mill  speaks  of  it  as  a  matter 
within  his  own  official  knowledge,  that  in  the 
Mohammedan  States  of  India,  which  are  governed 
by  native  princes,  where,  as  is  not  unfrequently 
the  case,  a  princess  is  regent  during  the  minority 
of  her  son,  the  State  is  always  much  better  gov- 
erned than  when  under  the  administration  of  a 
prince.  This  is  certainly  creditable  to  the  execu- 
tive ability  of  the  princesses,  but  the  best  of  these 
native  governments  has  only  the  negative  merit 
of  doing  less  evil  than  its  neighbors. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  condition  of  women  in  European  States 
and  Palestine,  before  the  Christian  era,  deserves 
some  notice.  In  Greece  there  were  two  policies 
adopted,  as  diverse  as  the  character  of  the  com- 
monwealths which  resorted  to  them,  yet  both 
springing  from  the  same  general  theory  of  the 
subject  condition  of  women.  In  Athens,  there 
were  two  classes  of  women :  the  one,  composed  of 
the  wives  and  daughters  of  citizens,  who  were 
kept  under  the  strictest  surveillance,  retained  at 
home,  or,  if  permitted  to  walk  upon  the  street, 
required  to  be  closely  veiled.  They  were  kept 
in  ignorance  of  public  affairs,  and  their  life  was 
but  a  long  and  close  imprisonment,  with  nothing 
except  their  household  duties  to  relieve  its  ennui. 
The  other  class,  the  so-called  hetairce,  or  compan- 
ions, were  educated  and  brilliant  women,  of  fas- 
cinating manners,  but  abandoned  life,  who  fre- 
quented the  market  places,  the  assemblies,  and 
the  public  debates  of  the  city,  and  were  the  asso- 
ciates of  its  statesmen,  judges,  and  politicians. 
Their  life  was  as  free  as  that  of  the  others  was 
restricted,  but  it  was  a  life  of  open  and  public 
vice. 


4g  CONDITION    OF    WOMEN. 

In  Sparta,  the  good  of  the  State  was  paramount 
to  that  of  the  individual,  and  the  position  of  wo- 
man was  defined  with  reference  to  the  benefit  of 
the  State.  Political  power  was  retained  in  male 
hands,  and  young  women  were  disposed  of  in 
marriage  by  their  parents,  or,  if  orphans,  by  the 
king,  but  in  every  other  respect  they  were  placed 
very  nearly  on  a  footing  of  equality  with  the 
other  sex.  Their  education  was  public,  and  in- 
cluded the  athletic  games  and  exercises  else- 
where practiced  by  men  only ;  they  were  encour- 
aged to  discuss  the  questions  of  public  interest 
with  the  other  sex ;  and  as  wives  and  mothers, 
to  foster  the  patriotic  spirit,  to  inculcate  prudence, 
fortitude,  courage,  patience,  and  the  manly  vir- 
tues generally.  Their  virtue  was  unimpeached, 
and  the  influence  they  exerted  over  their  nation, 
in  its  best  days,  was,  perhaps,  more  beneficial 
than  that  of  any  women  of  ancient  times. 

In  all  the  Dorian  States  there  was  greater  free- 
dom allowed  to  the  women,  and  they  took  a  more 
active  part  in  public  affairs,  than  in  any  other  part 
of  Europe.  In  Corinth  and  in  most  of  the  other 
large  cities  of  the  peninsula,  there  w&s,  on  the 
other  hand,  a  most  deplorable  state  of  morals,  and, 
almost  without  exception,  the  women  were  the 
degraded  slaves  of  lust. 

In  the  early  periods  of  the  Roman  republic, 
the  Roman  matrons  were  distinguished  for  their 
virtue  and  dignity.  With  them  the  interest  of 


CONDITION    OP    WOMEN.  49 

the  nation  often  prevailed  over  their  private 
claims,  and  they  gloried  in  making  patriotic  sac- 
rifices. They  were  never  secluded,  either  before 
or  after  marriage,  and  they  became,  in  many  in- 
stances, possessed  of  great  wealth,  and  were  able 
to  dispose  of  it  as  they  pleased.  They  took  an 
active  part  in  public  affairs,  and  often  exerted 
great  influence  over  the  Senate  by  their  petitions 
and  pleas  for  favorable  legislation.  Yet  the  early 
laws  gave  the  husband  the  same  absolute  right  to 
the  services  and  even  the  life  of  his  wife,  as  he 
had  to  those  of  his  slave.  He  could  punish  her 
in  any  manner  he  pleased,  short  of  death,  for  any 
offense ;  and  if  the  offense  was  great,  he  could 
summon  a  tribunal  of  her  relatives,  try  her  before 
them,  and  if  she  was  convicted,  put  her  to  death. 
He  could  divorce  her  for  infidelity,  for  poisoning, 
and  for  having  false  keys.  By  the  laws  of  the 
Twelve  Tables,  the  women  were  granted  the  power 
of  divorcing  themselves  from  the  men.  In  the 
later  republic  and  the  empire,  this  unlimited 
facility  of  divorce  led  to  the  most  deplorable  re- 
sults upon  the  public  morals.  Chastity,  honor, 
and  virtue  became  the  rare  exceptions,  and  the 
prevalence  of  lust  in  its  grossest  and  most  degrad- 
ing forms,  the  almost  universal  rule.  The  women 
of  highest  rank,  the  wives  and  daughters  of  the 
emperors  and  triumvirs,  were  the  leaders  in  the 
most  horrible  and  degrading  crimes,  and  yet,  vile 
as  their  characters  were  known  to  be,  they  ex- 


50  CONDITION    OF   WOMEN. 

erted  a  controlling  influence  over  their  fathers, 
husbands,  and  sons. 

The  fall  of  pagan  Rome  was  due  quite  as.  much 
to  the  terrible  degradation  of  its  women,  and  their 
reckless  thirst  for  scenes  of  excitement  and  blood- 
shed, the  natural  fruit  of  their  profligate  lives,  as 
to  the  luxury  and  demoralization  of  its  men. 

The  Jewish  nation  had  attempted  to  preserve, 
as  nearly  as  possible,  in  their  purity,  the  institu- 
tions of  their  great  lawgiver,  but  he,  in  compassion 
to  their  Oriental  origin  and  training,  had  permitted 
polygamy  and  divorce,  and  had  given  to  the 
parents  and  husbands  very  stringent  authority 
over  their  daughters  and  wives.  Whoever  revolts 
against  the  idea  of  the  subordination  of  woman, 
must  find  the  authority  for  his  course  elsewhere 
than  in  the  laws  of  Moses.  So  far  as  these  can 
be  regarded  as  an  exposition  of  the  sentence  of 
Jehovah  on  woman  after  the  fall,  they  only  add 
to  its  severity.  Yet  the  Jewish  lawgiver  was 
too  wise  and  too  just  not  to  make  laws  which 
should  protect  woman  from  the  brutal  instincts  of 
the  semi-barbarous  Israelites,  which  should  con- 
firm her  in  the  possession  of  property,  and  render 
her  condition  more  tolerable,  under  the  liberty  of 
divorce. 

We  can  not,  however,  regard  the  Mosaic  law 
as  intended  to  be  in  this  or  its  other  legal  aspects, 
an  authoritative  development  of  the  will  of  Jeho- 
vah for  all  phases  or  conditions  of  society.  It 


CONDITION    OF    WOMEN.  51 

was  intended  to  influence,  control,  and  improve 
a  semi-barbarous  people,  just  emerging  from  sla- 
very, of  Oriental  origin  and  ideas,  and  gradually 
to  lift  them  to  a  higher  plane.  Of  course,  rapid 
progress  was  out  of  the  question,  and  their  preju- 
'clices  and  ancient  practices  must  be  conciliated  to 
some  extent.  What  would  be  adapted  to  such  a 
people,  would  in  many  particulars  be  wholly  out 
of  place  in  a  more  enlightened  and  cultivated 
commonwealth,  in  other  times  and  under  other 
circumstances. 

Either  from  these  laws,  or  from  the  peculiar 
condition  of  the  Hebrew  people,  we  find  that 
during  the  existence  of  the  Hebrew  common- 
wealth, women  enjoyed  a  very  considerable  de- 
gree of  liberty,  and  in  exceptional  instances  great 
authority  and  influence.  Unlike  other  Oriental 
nations,  there  was  no  attempt  at  seclusion  either 
of  married  or  unmarried  women  ;  they  took  a  con- 
siderable and  almost  uniformly  patriotic  interest 
in  public  affairs  ;  in  one  notable  instance,  a  woman, 
and  she  a  wife,  Deborah,  the  wife  of  Lepidoth, 
judged  Israel  for  many  years,  and,  in  association 
with  Barak,  led  the  national  forces  against  the 
Canaanites.  In  the  later  history  of  the  nation  we 
find  women  taking  a  prominent  part  in  the  national 
rejoicings,  and  the  wives  and  mothers  of  the  Is- 
raelitish  kings  influencing  and  controlling  their 
action.  Two  of  these  queens,  Jezebel  and  Atha- 
liah,  stand  out  in  a  bad  pre-eminence,  which  indi- 


52  CONDITION    OF    WOMEN. 

cates  alike  their  despotic  power  and  their  evil 
disposition.  Still  later,  in  the  Maccabean  wars, 
Judith,  the  slayer  of  Holofernes,  and  deliverer  of 
her  people,  is  a  commanding  figure  in  Jewish 
history. 

The  hope  of  being  privileged  to  become  the 
mother  of  the  long  promised  Messiah  gave  a  dig- 
nity and  glory  to  the  character  of  the  Judean 
woman,  which  manifested  itself  as  well  in  her 
moral  as  her  physical  beauty — and  through  the 
ages  this  blessed  expectation  had  its  share  in 
keeping  her  pure,  chaste,  and  holy. 

Yet,  with  all  this  measure  of  freedom,  the  Jew- 
ish woman  was,  in  many  respects,  subordinate ; 
and,  especially  among  the  lower  classes,  her  lot 
was  hard,  her  toil  constant  and  severe,  and  her 
task-master,  who  was  also  her  husband,  was  ex- 
acting and  stern. 

Both  Caesar  and  Tacitus  portray  the  social  con- 
dition of  the  Germans  as  remarkably  attractive, 
and  describe  the  position  of  their  women  as  one 
of  more  freedom  and  equality  than  was  found 
elsewhere  ;  but  while  there  has  been,  from  the  ear- 
liest times,  among  the  Teutonic  tribes,  a  stronger 
attachment  for  home  and  family  than  in  the  Celtic 
nations,  these  descriptions  are  to  be  taken  with 
some  allowance,  both  from  their  necessarily  super- 
ficial character,  and  from  the  proneness  of  both 
writers  to  make  history  the  vehicle  for  the  incul- 
cation of  their  own  views  and  theories.  The 


CONDITION    OF    WOMEN.  55 

Germans  were  barbarians,  and  though  of  a  noble 
and  generous  nature,  and  free  from  many  of  the 
vices  of  barbarism,  there  is  no  reason  to  believe 
that  they  abdicated  their  authority  over  the  women 
of  their  nation,  or  exempted  them  from  the  hard- 
ships which  they  suffered  in  most  barbarous  na- 
tions. This  is  the  less  probable  since,  even  to-day, 
when  they  have  become  a  highly  intellectual  and 
cultivated  nation,  and  all  the  ameliorating  influ- 
ences of  Christianity  and  mental  culture  have,  for 
ages  exerted  their  influence  in  improving  the  con- 
dition of  woman,  the  German  women  of  the  lower, 
and,  to  some  extent,  of  the  middle  classes,  are  sub- 
jected to  greater  hardships  than  the  women  of 
any  other  nation  of  Europe.  The  farm-laborer, 
the  mechanic,  and  even  the  small  farmer,  makes 
his  wife  or  mother  his  drudge,  and  compels  her 
to  perform  the  most  menial  and  severe  labors, 
while  he  sits  or  walks  by  her  side  unemployed, 
smoking  his  pipe.  Within  a  few  years,  American 
citizens  have  witnessed,  in  Vienna,  women  acting 
as  masons'  tenders,  carrying  bricks  and  mortar  up 
to  the  walls  of  lofty  brick  buildings  in  course  of 
erection.  There,  as  well  as  here,  German  women, 
often  the  mothers  of  families,  are  chiffonnieres  and 
scavengers. 

3 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE  advent  of  Christianity  exerted  a  favorable 
influence  on  the  condition  of  women  throughout 
all  the  countries  in  which  it  was  propagated.  In 
the  mission,  the  sufferings,  and  death  of  the  Mes- 
siah, a  part  of  the  sentence  pronounced  on  the 
serpent,  and  the  serpent's  prompter,  had  been 
fulfilled ;  the  seed  of  the  woman  did  bruise  the 
serpent's  head.  And  in  the  whole  life  and  teach- 
ings of  the  Redeemer,  there  was  a  compassionate 
thoughtfulnesS  for  woman,  an  evident  desire  to 
raise  her  from  her  lowly  condition,  and  to  confer 
upon  her  some  relief  from  the  severity  of  the 
sentence  pronounced  in  Eden,  which  was  without 
any  precedent  in  the  world's  previous  history. 
It  seemed  as  if,  in  his  view,  woman,  in  bringing 
into  the  world  the  second  Adam,  had  measurably 
atoned  for  her  transgression  in  leading  the  first 
Adam  into  temptation,  and  henceforth  her  lot  was 
to  be  less  wretched,  her  sorrows  to  be  diminished, 
and  her  joys  increased.  Women  rendered  con- 
spicuous services  to  the  Saviour  himself,  and  to 
the  early  Church ;  though  never  admitted  to  the 
exercise  of  authority,  their  zeal,  their  labors,  in 
public  and  private,  in  the  diffusion  of  Christianity, 


CONDITION    OP    WOMEN.  57 

and  their  abundant  charity,  were  commended  both 
by  Christ  and  his  apostles,  nor  were  they  ever 
censured  for  their  Christian  activity,  even  though 
it  at  tim^s  must  have  encroached  on  the  house- 
hold duties,  which,  then  as  now,  were  considered 
by  many  as  paramount. 

At  an  early  period  in  the  history  of  the  Church, 
Christian  women,  aside  from  the  instruction  of 
their  households  in  the  doctrines  of  the  Christian 
faith,  taught  the  catechumens,  prepared  the  love- 
feasts,  and  made  provision  for  the  eucharist ;  exer- 
cised, in  large  measure,  the  duties  of  a  hospitality 
more  exacting  than  that  of  the  present  day,  visit- 
ed the  sick  and  the  prisoners,  encouraged  those 
who  were  destined  to  martyrdom,  and  often,  with 
heroic  courage,  refused  to  deny  their  Lord,  and 
suffered  death  in  the  most  terrific  forms  which  the 
cruelty  of  tyrants  could  devise.  For  the  first  six 
hundred  years  of  the  Christian  era,  or,  at  least,  as 
soon  as  the  number  of  the  disciples  of  Christianity 
had  increased  sufficiently  to  warrant  the  organiza- 
tion of  Christian  communities,  the  Christian  wo- 
man was  practically  free  from  the  subjection  under 
which  she  had  formerly  been  bound.  Her  new 
ties,  aside  from  those  of  the  family,  were  to  the 
Church,  to  the  care  of  the  sick,  to  religious  instruc- 
tion, and  to  the  cloister;  for  the  life  of  voluntary 
seclusion  for  religious  meditation  and  improvement 
had  many  charms  for  the  unmarried  and  widowed. 
The  wea'thy  and  high-born  women  of  the  Roman 


58  CONDITION    OP   -WOMEN. 

empire  gave  their  money  and  influence  for  the 
ransoming  of  slaves,  for  the  establishment  of  hos- 
pitals, asylums  for  the  sick,  and  monasteries, 
which,  at  first,  included  also  schools  for  the  instruc- 
tion of  the  poor  and  ignorant. 

To  say  that  there  were  no  instances  of  the  op- 
pression of  women  in  these  early  centuries,  would 
be  to  falsify  history.  The  Roman  laws,  and  later, 
the  Justinian  code,  were  in  force,  and  neither 
recognized,  so  fully  as  they  ought,  the  rights  and 
immunities  of  woman;  but  then,  as  before  and 
since,  the  practice  of  the  community  was  materi- 
ally better  than  the  laws,  and  in  her  social  posi- 
tion, woman  enjoyed  more  of  freedom  than  at  a 
later  period. 

We  may  not  urge  it  as  any  fault  of  the  sex  that 
as  the  ages  drew  on,  ignorance,  darkness,  and 
moral  degradation  constantly  increased.  They 
would  have  done  so  inevitably  under  existing  cir- 
cumstances. There  were,  in  Southern  Europe, 
the  dregs  of  the  old  Roman  empire,  which  had 
perished  from  its  own  rottenness ;  a  conglomera- 
tion of  nationalities,  having  as  vet  no  bond  of 

J  CJ  v 

union,  not  even  the  nominal  Christianity  which 
but  a  part  of  them  had  professed  ;  a  bitter  strife 
between  the  middle  classes,  the  nobles,  and  the 
peasants  ;  and  a  Church  which  was  fast  declining 
from  its  high  estate  of  purity  and  self-sacrifice 
into  a  condition  of  hypocrisy,  selfish  greed,  and 
gross  licentiousness.  The  monasteries  and  nun- 


CONDITION    OP    WOMEN.  61 

neries  were  no  longer  places  of  devout  meditation 
and  Christian  instruction ;  but  in  them,  gluttony, 
drunkenness,  lust,  and  murder,  ran  riot.  The 
priests,  under  the  new  regime  of  celibacy,  were 
no  longer  the  ministers  of  Christ,  but  wolves  which 
debauched  and  destroyed  the  flock,  and  all  things 
seemed  tending  toward  utter  ruin  and  desolation. 

It  is  to  the  honor  of  the  sex,  that  we  have  to 
record,  that  in  every  century  of  these  dark  ages, 
there  were  found  women  who  sought  to  raise  their 
sex  from  the  degradation  which  seemed  so  inevi- 
table ;  daughters  of  nobles  and  princes,  who,  by 
the  establishment  of  schools  and  institutions  of 
learning,  and  by  public  instruction,  attempted  to 
turn  the  attention  of  their  sisters  from  frivolity 
and  dissipation ;  and  daughters  of  toil  as  well, 
who  established  manufactories,  asylums  for  the 
poor  and  infirm,  and  sisterhoods  for  the  relief  of 
the  suffering. 

The  development  of  knight-errantry  and  the  age 
of  chivalry,  during  this  period,  was  a  protest 
against  the  lawless  outrages  of  the  time,  from 
which  women  were  the  greatest  sufferers,  and  an 
effort  to  establish  the  domination  of  a  great  reform 
of  morals  and  manners,  on  an  inadequate  basis, 
and  in  an  age  which  was  not  ripe  for  it.  It 
accomplished  some  good  as  well  as  some  evil ; 
the  high-born  dames  whom  the  knights  recognized 
as  their  ladyes,  were  pledged  to  lives  of  purity 
and  good  works,  and  their  approval  infused  new 


g2  CONDITION    OF    WOMEN. 

• 

courage,  and  incited  to  greater  efforts,  their  knights; 
but  the  excessive  flatteries  addressed  to  them  by 
the  troubadours,  and  the  almost  religious  adora- 
tion bestowed  upon  them,  tended  to  excite  the 
vanity  and  to  raise  the  self-esteem  of  these  women, 
whose  education  was  but  meager,  and  whose  judg- 
ment was  hardly  more  developed  than  their 
intellect. 

It  should  be  remembered,  too,  that  in  the  days 
of  chivalry,  it  was  only  the  noble  and  high-born 
to  whom  the  knight  pledged  his  sword,  and  from 
whom  he  received  his  "  favors ;"  the  wives  and 
daughters  of  the  peasants,  and,  indeed,  of  the 
tradesmen,  had  no  rights  which  these  knights  were 
bound  to  respect ;  and  often  was  the  lowly  home 
made  desolate,  and  the  peasant-woman  dishonored, 
by  a  knight  who  had  vowed  perpetual  fealty  to 
some  proud  beauty  in  castle  or  chateau. 

But  these  dark  ages  could  not  always  last.  The 
Reformation  came,  and  brought  an  improvement 
both  in  morals  and  manners.  The  revival  of  let- 
ters, which  partly  preceded  and  was  partly  con- 
temporaneous with  it,  had  opened  the  way  for  the 
intellectual  culture  of  the  sex,  and  in  the  century 
which  followed,  we  find  a  considerable  number  of 
female  names  illustrious  for  scholarship ;  the 
new  faith  had  its  eloquent  advocates  among  wo- 
men as  well  as  among  men,  though  the  Reformers 
themselves  discouraged  any  public  ministration 
of  women.  Luther,  however,  pressed  women  into 


CONDITION    OF    WOMEN.  (J3 

service,  as  instructors  of  the  young,  and  recog- 
nized them  as  able  assistants  in  many  depart- 
ments of  Christian  activity. 

The  power  of  woman,  if  not  her  freedom  from 
subjection,  was  recognized,  especially  in  the  higher 
classes.  In  the  century  which  followed  the  Ref- 
ormation, more  than  half  the  principal  thrones  of 
Europe  were  occupied  by  queens,  some  of  them 
illustrious  for  their  virtues  and  abilities,  others 
equally  conspicuous  for  their  vices. 

Isabella,  of  Spain ;  Catherine  de  Medicis,  of 
France ;  Mary  and  Elizabeth,  of  England ;  Eliza- 
beth, of  Hungary;  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  were 
the  most  remarkable  of  these  female  rulers,  and 
whether  their  success  was  due,  as  has  been  al- 
leged, to  the  able  men  they  selected  as  counsel- 
ors, or  not,  it  must  be  admitted  that  their  reigns 
do  not  generally  compare  unfavorably  with  those 
of  the  kings,  who  preceded  or  succeeded  them. 

In  the  following  century  women  played  a 
prominent  part  in  the  government  of  France, 
Spain,  and  England,  but  it  was  oftenest  as  favor- 
ites, who  ruled  the  kings  through  their  passions, 
and  disposed  of  offices,  places  and  treasure,  for 
the  gratification  of  their  own  caprices  rather  than 
for  the  good  of  the  people. 

The  eighteenth  century  was  also  remarkable 
for  its  intellectual  women,  some  of  whom  have 
never  been  surpassed  in  the  vigor  and  purity  of 
their  style,  while  others  exhibited  a  grasp  of  in- 


(54  CONDITION   OF    WOMEN. 

telloct  and  a  power  of  grappling  with  important 
questions  of  finance  and  political  economy,  which 
had  hitherto  been  supposed  beyond  the  abilities 
of  the  sex. 

The  religious  reformation  in  England,  and  the 
organization  of  Wesleyan  Methodism,  developed 
another  element  of  womanly  power.  Wesley's 
distinguished  patroness,  Selina,  Countess  of  Hun- 
tingdon, was  herself  active  as  a  writer  in  defense 
of  his  doctrines,  and  the  women  of  the  middle  and 
lower  classes,  who  made  up  somewhat  the  larger 
portion  of  the  converts  under  the  preaching  of 
both  Wesley  and  Whitfield,  found  liberty  of  ut- 
terance in  their  meetings,  and  often  discoursed 
with  great  power,  and  sometimes  with  considera- 
ble vehemence,  in  behalf  of  the  new  doctrines. 

It  was,  however,  reserved  for  the  nineteenth 
century  to  witness  the  higher  and  much  more 
general  intellectual  development  of  woman,  and 
her  advance  in  the  attainment  of  those  legal  rights, 
which,  under  English  common  and  statute  law, 
had  hitherto  been  unjustly  withheld  from  her. 
In  literature  she  has  achieved  a  high,  though 
hardly  the  highest  position ;  her  fictions  have 
shown  considerable  creative  power,  and  are  hardly 
more  deficient  in  originality  than  those  of  the 
most  eminent  male  novelists ;  in  poetry  she  has 
attained  a  high  rank,  and  though  still  falling  be- 
low the  great  masterpieces  of  English  verse,  she 
is  entitled  to  rank  with  the  best  poets  of  our  own 


CONDITION    OF    WOMEN.  £5 

time.  In  science  a  few  great  names  nave  ap- 
peared, to  demonstrate  the  capacity  of  the  sex  for 
high  attainments  in  astronomy,  mathematics,  natu- 
ral history,  political  economy,  psychology,  and 
moral  philosophy. 

In  the  mechanic  arts,  though  seldom  inventing 
any  important  machines,  they  have  exhibited  a 
tact  and  skill  in  manipulation,  in  many  depart- 
ments, which  have  secured  for  them  high  positions 
and  great  responsibilities. 

In  trade  and  commercial  pursuits,  women,  who 
have  been  trained  to  them,  often  exhibit  decided 
abilities  both  in  financial  management  and  in 
sales. 

But  it  was  left  for  the  Crimean  war,  the  late 
war  in  the  United  States,  and  the  still  more  re- 
cent war  in  Germany,  to  exhibit  most  fully  the 
remarkable  executive  ability  of  woman,  in  the 
labors  of  the  hospital,  in  the  management  of 
depots  of  supplies,  in  the  purchase  of  goods,  the 
disbursement  of  hospital  stores,  the  conducting 
of  extensive  correspondence,  the  erection  of  hos- 
pitals, asylums,  and  homes  for  the  wounded,  the 
organization  and  successful  management  of  mon- 
ster fairs,  and  the  control,  in  general,  of  an  ex- 
penditure of  nearly  eighty  millions  of  dollars. 

In  this  great  work,  of  the  thousands  who  took 
part  in  it,  many  fell  victims  to  over-work  and 
over-anxiety  ;  some,  as  delicate  as  the  others,  but 
with  better  powers  of  endurance,  survived  the 

3* 


(Jg  CONDITION    OP    WOMEN. 

great  struggle,  but,  thoroughly  disabled,  sank  a 
year  or  two  later  into  untimely  graves ;  and 
others,  recovering  from  the  terrible  strain  of 
brain  and  nerve,  still  live  to  bless  the  world. 

It  is  the  testimony,  not  grudgingly  given,  of  the 
men  who  were  associated  with  them  in  this  work, 
that  it  was  well,  admirably  done  ;  that  much  of 
it  could  not  have  been  done  so  well  by  men, 
since  it  required  womanly  tact  and  tenderness; 
and  that  none  of  it  could  have  been  accomplished 
with  more  skill,  system,  and  promptness,  by  men 
trained  all  their  lives  to  business,  than  it  was  by 
women  who  had  previously  been  the  ornaments 
and  pets  of  society. 

To  these  noble  and  generous-hearted  women, 
however,  the  "  pace  was  killing ;''  the  effort  was 
too  great  for  their  delicate  and  frail  constitutions ; 
and  though  there  was  no  faltering,  no  shrinking 
from  toil,  till  the  last  invoice  was  made  out,  the 
last  consignment  shipped,  or  the  last  patient  cared 
for,  they  went  to  their  homes,  many  of  them,  when 
all  was  done,  only  to  lie  down  and  die.  To  men, 
under  similar  circumstances,  there  would  have 
come  for  a  time  intense  weariness,  and  a  craving 
for  rest ;  but  the  bow,  long  bent,  would  have  re- 
covered its  elasticity,  and  the  power  of  work  have 
returned. 

The  brief  review  of  the  condition  of  woman  in  all 
ages  being  thus  concluded,  let  us  proceed  to  define 
what  is  woman's  present  position  before  the  law. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE  greater  part  of  the  provisions  of  our  statute 
books  in  relation  to  woman  have  been  based  on 
the  common  law  of  England,  modified  of  late 
years  by  special  statutes,  granting  particular  priv- 
ileges or  immunities  to  women  in  certain  relations 
or  conditions  in  life.  In  Canada,  to  some  extent? 
and  in  Louisiana  and  Florida  almost  entirely,  the 
French  laws  either  of  the  code  Napoleon,  or  the 
old  communal  law,  prevail.  What  the  English 
common  law  on  this  subject  is,  has  been  briefly 
but  justly  expressed  in  an  old  Black-letter  volume 
published  in  1632,  and  attributed  to  Sir  John 
Doderidge,  Solicitor-General,  and  subsequently 
Judge  of  Common  Pleas  and  of  the  King's  Bench. 
The  book  is  entitled  the  "  Lawe's  Resolution  of 
Woman's  Rights."  The  following  passage,  quoted 
by  Mrs.  C.  H.  Dall  in  her  "  The  College,  the  Mar- 
ket,  and  the  Court,"  contains  the  pith  of  many  a 
long  page  of  Black-letter  : — 

"  The  next  thing  that  I  will  show  you  is  this 
particularity  of  law.  In  this  consolidation  which 
we  call  wedlock  is  a  locking  together.  It  is  true 
that  man  and  wife  are  one  person;  but  under 
stand  in  what  manner.  When  a  small  brooke  or 


gg  LEGAL    STATUS    OF    WOMEN. 

little  river  incorporateth  with  Rhodanus,  Humber, 
or  the  Thames,  the  poore  rivulet  loseth  her  name  : 
it  is  carried  and  recarried  with  the  new  associate  ; 
it  beareth  no  sway ;  it  possesseth  nothing  during 
coverture.  A  woman,  as  soon  as  she  is  married, 
is  called  covert ;  in  Latine,  nnpta — that  is,  'veiled ;' 
as  it  were,  clouded  and  overshadowed ;  she  hath 
lost  her  streame.  I  may  more  truly,  farre  away, 
say  to  a  married  woman,  Her  new  self  is  her 
superior,  her  companion,  her  master."  . 

"  Eve,  because  she  had  helped  to  seduce  her 
husband,  had  inflicted  upon  her  a  special  bane. 
See  here  the  reason  of  that  which  I  touched  be- 
fore— that  women  have  no  voice  in  Parliament. 
They  make  no  laws,  they  consent  to  none,  they 
abrogate  none.  All  of  them  are  understood  either 
married  or  to  bee  married,  and  their  desires  are  to 
their  husbands.  I  know  no  remedy,  though  some 
women  can  shift  it  well  enough.  The  common 
lawe  here  shaketh  hand  with  divinitye." 

Mr.  John  Stuart  Mill,  in  his  "  Subjection  of 
Women,"  published  in  the  summer  of  1869,  thus 
states  the  present  provisions  of  the  common  law 
of  England,  in  relation  to  the  condition  of  married 
women,  after  all  the  recent  statutory  modifications : 

"  The  wife  is  the  actual  bond-servant  of  her 
husband  ;  no  less  so,  as  far  as  legal  obligation  goes, 
than  slaves,  commonly  so  called.  She  vows  a  life- 
long obedience  to  him  at  the  altar,  and  is  held  to 
it  all  through  her  life  by  law.  Casuists  may  say 


LEGAL    STATUS    OP    WOMEN.  59 

that  the  obligation  of  obedience  stops  short  of 
participation  in  crime,  but  it  certainly  extends  to 
every  thing  else.  She  can  do  no  act  whatever 
but  by  his  permission,  at  least  tacit.  She  can 
acquire  no  property  but  for  him ;  the  instant  it 
becomes  hers,  even  if  by  inheritance,  it  becomes 
ipso  facto  his.  In  this  respect  the  wife's  position, 
under  the  common  law  of  England,  is  worse  than 
that  of  slaves  in  the  laws  of  many  countries.  By 
the  Roman  law,  for  example,  a  slave  might  have 
his  peculmm,  which,  to  a  certain  extent,  the  law 
guaranteed  to  him  for  his  exclusive  use.  The 
higher  classes  (in  England)  have  given  an  analo- 
gous advantage  to  their  women,  through  special 
contracts  setting  aside  the  law,  by  conditions  of  pin- 
money,  &c. :  since,  parental  feeling  being  stronger 
with  fathers  than  the  class  feeling  of  their  own 
sex,  a  father  generally  prefers  his  own  daughter 
to  a  son-in-law  who  is  a  stranger  to  him.  By 
means  of  settlements,  the  rich  usually  contrive  to 
withdraw  the  whole  or  part  of  the  inherited  prop- 
erty of  the  wife  from  the  absolute  control  of  the 
husband  :  but  they  do  not  succeed  in  keeping  it 
under  her  own  control ;  the  utmost  they  can  do 
only  prevents  the  husband  from  squandering  it, 
at  the  same  time  debarring  the  rightful  owner  from 
its  use.  The  property  itself  is  out  of  the  reach 
of  both  ;  and  as  to  the  income  derived  from  it,  the 
form  of  settlement  most  favorable  to  the  wife 
(that  called  '  to  her  separate  use ')  only  precludes 


70  LEGAL    STATUS    OF    WOMEN. 

the  husband  from  receiving  it  instead  of  her ;  it 
must  pass  through  her  hands ;  but  if  he  takes  it 
from  her,  by  personal  violence,  as  soon  as  she  re- 
ceives it,  he  can  neither  be  punished  nor  com- 
pelled to  restitution.  In  the  immense  majority 
of  cases  there  is  no  settlement ;  and  the  absorp- 
tion of  all  rights,  all  property,  as  well  as  all  free- 
dom of  action,  is  complete.  The  two  are  called 
(  one  person  in  law,'  for  the  purpose  of  inferring 
that  whatever  is  hers  is  his,  but  the  parallel  in- 
ference is  never  drawn,  that  whatever  is  his  is 
hers ;  the  maxim  is  not  applied  against  the  man, 
except  to  make  him  responsible  to  third  parties 
for  her  acts,  as  a  master  is  for  the  acts  of  his 
slaves  or  his  cattle.  I  am  far  from  pretending 
that  wives  are,  in  general,  no  better  treated  than 
slaves  ;  but  no  slave  is  a  slave  to  the  same  lengths, 
and  in  so  full  a  sense  of  the  word,  as  a  wife  is. 
Hardly  any  slave,  except  one  immediately  at- 
tached to  the  master's  person,  is  a  slave  at  all 
hours  and  all  minutes ;  in  general,  he  has,  like  a 
soldier,  his  fixed  task,  and  when  it  is  done,  or 
when  he  is  off  duty,  he  disposes,  within  certain 
limits,  of  his  own  time,  and  has  a  family  life,  into 
which  the  master  rarely  intrudes.  But  it  can  not 
be  so  with  the  wife.* 

*  Mrs.  Ball  illustrates  this  practical  servitude  of  the  wife,  under  the 
English  common  law,  by  the  following  incident,  which  occurred  in  one  of 
the  London  courts,  in  1858: — 

''  A  delicate,  much-abused  woman,  unmarried,  but  who  ha<l  been,  in 
her  own  phrase,  '  living  for  some  time  '  with  a  man,  brought  an  action 


LEGAL    STATUS    OF   WOMEN.  fj 

"  While  she  is  held  in  this  worst  description  of 
slavery  as  to  her  own  person,  what  is  her  position 
in  regard  to  the  children  in  whom  she  and  her 
master  have  a.  joint  interest  ?  They  are  by  law 
his  children.  He  alone  has  any  legal  rights  over 
them.  Not  one  act  can  she  do  toward,  or  in  rela- 
tion to  them,  except  by  delegation  from  him. 
Even  after  he  is  dead,  she  is  not  their  legal  guar- 
dian, unless  he  by  will  has  made  her  so.  He 
could  even  send  them  away  from  her,  and  deprive 
her  of  the  means  of  seeing  or  corresponding  with 
them,  until  this  power  was  in  some  degree  re- 
stricted by  Sergeant  Talfourd's  act. 

"  This  is  her  legal  state.     And  from,  this  state 

against  him  for  assault.  Erysipelas  had  inflamed  her  wounds,  and  en- 
dangered her  life. 

"  '  Had  she  died,  sirrah,'  said  the  magistrate,  addressing  the  criminal, 
'  you  must  have  taken  your  trial  for  murder.  What  have  you  to  say  in 
your  defense  ? ' 

"  '  I  was  in  liquor,  sir,'  pleaded  the  man.  '  I  gave  her  some  money  to 
go  to  market.  I  told  her  to  look  sharp ;  but  she  was  gone  more  than 
an  hour,  your  worship ;  so,  when  she  came  back,  I — I  was  in  liquor, 
your  honor.' 

fi  The  magistrate  leaned  over  his  desk,  and  speaking  in  the  most  im- 
pressive manner,  thus  endeavored  to  cut  short  the  defense  : — 

"  '  This  woman  is  not  your  slave,  man.  She  is  not  accountable  to  you 
for  every  moment  of  her  time.  She  is  not,'  he  continued  with  increasing 
fervor,  but  a  growing  embarrassment.  '  she  is  not — she  is  not — ' 

"A  suppressed  titter  ran  through  the  court:  for  every  married  man 
knew  that  the  words,  'She  is  not  your  wife,'  were  those  which  had 
sprung  naturally  to  the  worthy  magistrate's  lips ;  and  must  have  passed 
them,  had  not  honest  shame  prevented.  The  man  then  attempted  to 
defend  himself  on  the  ground  of  jealousy,  but  this  was  instantly  -set 
aside;  the  unmistakable  impression  left  on  the  mind  of  the  assembly 
being,  that  the  illegality  of  the  relation  was  wholly  in  the  woman's 
favor." 


72  LEGAL    STATUS    OF   WOMEN. 

she  has  no  means  of  withdrawing  herself.  If  she 
leaves  her  husband,  she  can  take  nothing  with  her, 
neither  her  children,  nor  any  thing  which  is  right- 
fully her  own.  If  he  chooses,  he  can  compel  her 
to  return,  by  law,  or  by  physical  force ;  or  he 
may  content  himself  with  seizing  for  his  own  use 
any  thing  which  she  may  earn,  or  which  may  be 
given  her  by  her  relations.*  It  is  only  legal  sepa- 
ration by  a  decree  of  a  court  of  justice,  which 
entitles  her  to  live  apart,  without  being  forced 
back  into  the  custody  of  an  exasperated  jailer — 
or  which  empowers  her  to  apply  any  earnings  to 
her  own  use,  without  fear  that  a  man,  whom  she 
has  not  seen  for  twenty  years,  will  pounce  upon 
her  some  day  and  carry  all  off.  This  legal  sepa- 
ration, until  lately,  the  courts  of  justice  would  only 
give  at  an  expense  ($4,000  or  more)  which  made 
it  inaccessible  to  any  one  out  of  the  higher  ranks. 
Even  now  it  is  only  given  in  cases  of  desertion  or 
the  extreme  of  cruelty ;  and  yet  complaints  are 
made  every  day,  that  it  is  granted  too  easily.  No 
amount  of  ill-usage,  without  adultery  superadded, 
will  in  England  free  a  wife  from  her  tormentor, 
that  is,  by  a  full  divorce." 

Well  may  Mr.   Mill  remark  of  such  laws  as 
these,  that  the  laws   of  most  countries  are  far 

*  The  husband  of  the  Hon.  Mrs.  Norton  actually  enforced  this  out- 
rageous provision  of  the  law  against  his  wife ;  seizing  the  incomefrom  her 
settlement,  all  her  personal  effects,  her  literary  earnings,  and  the  gifts 
of  her  frieuds. 


LEGAL    STATUS    OF    WOMEN.  73 

worse  than  the  people  who  execute  them,  and 
many  of  them  are  only  able  to  remain  laws  by 
being  seldom  or  never  carried  into  effect. 

The  English  common  law  is  somewhat  more  just 
to  single  women,  though  still  oppressive  in  some 
particulars. 

A  single  woman  has  the  same  rights  of  property 
as  a  man  ;  she  is  entitled  to  the  protection  of  the 
law,  and  has  to  pay  the  same  taxes  to  the  State. 
If  her  parents  die  without  a  will,  she  shares  equally 
with  her  brothers  in  the  division  of  the  personal 
property ;  but  her  eldest  brother  and  his  issue, 
even  if  female,  will  take  the  real  estate  as  heirs  at 
law.  If  she  be  an  only  child,  she  inherits  both 
the  personal  and  real  property  of  her  parents. 

Being  "  duly  qualified,"  that  is,  possessing  a 
certain  amount  of  property,  she  may  vote  on  parish 
questions  and  for  parish  officers. 

As  the  English  law  of  suffrage  is  based  on  a 
property  qualification,  it  was  contended  that  single 
women  possessing  the  required  amount  of  freehold 
property  (this  was  before  the  recent  suffrage  re- 
form) might  cast  a  vote  for  members  of  Parliament; 
and  it  is  a  matter  of  record  that  in  one  or  two  in- 
stances they  have  done  so.  The  attempt  by  any 
considerable  number  of  women  to  cast  a  vote 
under  these  conditions  would,  however,  have  imme- 
diately caused  a  legal  prohibition.  In  June,  1866, 
fifteen  hundred  single  women,  property-holders, 
petitioned  Parliament  to  provide  for  the  represen- 


74  LEGAL    STATUS    OF   WOMEN. 

tation  of  householders  without  distinction  of  sex, 
alleging  that  the  possession  of  property  justly 
carried  with  it  the  right  to  vote  for  representatives 
in  Parliament,  and  that  their  exclusion  was  an 
anomaly  in  the  British  constitution.  Though 
their  construction  of  the  British  constitution  was 
unquestionably  logical,  and  the  number  of  voters 
to  be  added  by  such  a  change  was  not  large,  yet 
the  prayer  of  the  petitioners  was,  without  hesita- 
tion, rejected,  though  defended  with  ability  by  Mr. 
J.  Stuart  Mill,  who  had  presented  it. 

The  Church  and  all  State  offices  are  closed  to 
women.  In  rare  instances  they  have  been  appointed 
to  rural  post-offices,  or  made  parish  clerks,  over- 
seers of  the  poor,  or  governors  of  small  local  pri- 
sons. They  are  not  excluded  from  the  highest  of 
all  positions  in  the  realm,  that  of  sovereign ;  but 
there,  the  power,  under  the  constitution,  is  much 
more  nominal  than  real,  since  the  real  sovereignty 
is  lodged  in  the  cabinet.  In  almost  all  periods  of 
English  history,  women  have,  through  court  favor 
or  particular  circumstances,  held  some  one  of  the 
great  offices  of  the  kingdom,  sinecures,  of  which 
there  are  so  many  in  Great  Britain;  but  these 
were  only  exceptional  cases,  and  the  recurrence 
of  any  one  of  them  is  highly  improbable. 

No  single  woman,  having  been  seduced,  has  any 
remedy  at  common  law,  neither  has  her  mother  or 
next  friend.  If  her  father  can  prove  service  ren- 
dered, he  may  sue  for  loss  of  service. 


LEGAL    STATUS    OP    WOMEN.  75 

The  conservative  principle  is  so  strong  in  the 
English  people,  that  they  suffer  these  laws,  and 
others  equally  odious,  to  remain  on  the  statute 
book,  when  the  enforcement  of  some  of  them  has 
not  been  attempted  for  generations,  and  they 
could  not,  probably,  in  any  given  case,  be  enforced. 
Still,  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  women  have  a 
right  to  claim  more  liberal  legislation,  and  the 
abrogation  of  the  old  principle  of  force  from  the 
statute  book,  in  its  application  to  their  condition. 

In  England  there  is  no  provision  for  the  pro- 
tection of  a  married  woman  who  goes  into  busi- 
ness in  her  own  name.  Be  her  husband  ever  so 
profligate  or  worthless,  he  has  the  right  to  seize 
all  her  earnings  and  her  goods,  convert  them  to 
his  own  use,  and  turn  her  penniless  into  the  street, 
and  she  has  no  redress. 

In  France  the  provisions  on  this  subject  are 
better.  The  code  Napoleon,  it  is  true,  resembles 
the  English  common  law  in  this  respect;  but  all 
parties,  at  their  marriage,  are  allowed  to  choose 
whether  they  will  be  governed  by  this  law,  which, 
in  its  relations  to  the  property  of  married  women, 
is  called  the  dotal,  or  by  another  called  the  com- 
munal law,  and  the  choice  once  made  can  not  be 
revoked.  The  communal  law  makes  the  woman  a 
citizen,  equally  liable  with  her  husband  for  the 
State  and  other  taxes,  and  gives  her  the  authority 
to  make  her  own  bargains  and  control  her  own 
property,  which  is  not  responsible  for  her  hus- 


76  LEGAL   STATUS   OF   WOMEN. 

band's  debts.  She  has  no  suffrage;  but  on  the 
other  hand,  she  is  not  liable  for  military  service. 

In  France,  women  sometimes  hold  office ;  they 
may  be  post-mistresses,  inspectors  of  schools 
and  public  asylums,  may  take  charge  of  bureaus 
of  wood  and  tobacco — government  monopolies — 
and  in  relation  to  these  subordinate  offices  they 
enjoy  all  the  rights  of  the  men,  except  the  right 
of  promotion. 

The  French  law,  in  other  particulars,  gives  the 
husband  much  the  same  personal  rights  over  the 
wife  as  the  English  common  law,  with  the  added 
disadvantage,  that,  as  a  Catholic  country,  there  is 
no  legal  separation,  and  no  divorce  but  for  adul- 
tery. The  dread  of  this  perpetual  bondage  has 
been  in  the  lower  classes,  among  the  working  peo- 
ple (ouvriers),  students,  &c.,  the  cause  of  a  form 
of  illicit  connection — the  grisette  system — which 
is  more  prevalent  there  than  in  any  other  country 
of  Europe,  and  which  has  proved  subversive  of 
public  morals  to  a  frightful  extent.  The  single 
woman  has  no  redress  against  her  seducer,  even 
under  the  promise  of  marriage ;  and  in  general 
her  position,  except  in  the  protection  of  her  prop- 
erty, is  worse  than  in  England.  The  French  law, 
in  all  its  provisions  in  regard  to  women,  seems 
not  so  much  desirous  of  protecting  her  as  of 
hedging  her  about,  by  laws,  to  protect  society 
against  her :  yet  there  has  been  progress  even  in 
France  j  the  position  of  woman  in  that  country  is  bet 


LEGAL    STATUS    OF    WOMEN.  77 

ter  now  than  it  was  fifty  years  ago,  and  would  be 
better  than  it  is,  were  it  not  that  the  low  state  of 
public  morals  begets  a  contempt  for  women  which  is 
but  thinly  veiled  in  the  habitual  politeness  of  the 
French  people.  We  turn  to  the  United  States, 
and  ask,  What  is  the  legal  status  of  woman  here  ? 
Thirty  years  since,  the  English  common  law 
was,  with  but  slight  modifications,  the  paramount 
law  in  regard  to  the  legal  condition  of  woman ; 
but  changes  were  incorporated  into  the  statutes  of 
the  new  States,  and  these  were  speedily  introduced 
in  the  older  commonwealths,  till  now  the  greater 
part  of  the  disabilities  under  which  they  formerly 
suffered  are  abolished.  There  is,  however,  a  great 
want  of  uniformity  in  the  legislation  of  the  dif- 
ferent States  on  this  subject;  some  going  much 
further  than  others  in  their  enactments  for  the 
benefit  of  the  sex.  In  most  of  the  States,  the  wife 
is  allowed  to  hold  property  separate  from  her  hus- 
band. In  New  York,  Massachusetts,  Connecticut, 
and  most  of  the  Western  States,  she  can  conduct 
business  in  her  own  name,  or  have  a  partner  other 
than  her  husband,  and  her  separate  property  is  not 
subject  to  seizure  by  him,  nor  is  it  liable  for  his 
debts.  She  can  receive  property  by  inheritance 
or  gift  after  her  marriage,  and  dispose  of  it  inde- 
pendently of  her  husband.  In  several  of  the  States 
the  married  woman  can  make  a  will,  and  bequeath 
absolutely  her  separate  property  to  whomsoever 
she  pleases.  In  most,  she  receives  as  her  dower,  at 


78  LEGAL    STATUS    OF    WOMEN. 

her  husband's  death,  one-third  of  his  real  and  one- 
half  of  his  personal  estate.  If  they  are  childless, 
she  receives,  in  some  States,  the  whole  of  his  per- 
sonal and  half  of  his  real  estate,  if  he  dies  intes- 
tate. She  is  by  statute  of  most  of  the  States,  a 
guardian  of  her  minor  children,  on  their  father's 
•  1  rath,  except  in  cases  of  mental  incompetency. 
Divorce  is  granted  for  several  causes  in  all  the 
States,  and  equally  to  either  party ;  in  some  of 
the  States  it  is  granted  for  any  cause,  or  without 
cause,  a  facility  which  is  productive  of  the  worst 
results. 

The  courts  punish  with  greater  or  less  severity 
the  brutality  of  the  husband  who  treats  his  wife 
with  violence ;  and  wife-murder  is  more  frequently 
punished  with  death  by  hanging  than  the  murder 
of  any  other  person.  This  is  as  it  should  be. 

The  condition  of  the  simile  woman  who  possesses 
property,  is  the  same  as  that  of  any  other  citizen. 
She  does  not  vote  at  any  public  election,  State  or 
national;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  she  is  not 
subject,  either  to  military  or  jury  duty ;  she  is 
taxed  both  by  the  State  and  national  governments, 
and  receives  the  benefit  of  the  taxation  in  the 
protection  accorded  to  her  person  and  property. 

A  single  woman  who  has  been  seduced,  can,  in 
several  of  the  States,  bring  a  civil,  and,  in  two  or 
three,  a  criminal  action  against  her  seducer,  and  in 
a  civil  suit  usually  obtains  exemplary  damages ;  or 


LEGAL    STATUS    OF    WOMEN.  79 

in  most  or  all  of  the  States  her  father,  mother,  or 
next  friend  can  bring  a  suit  for  her. 

A  few  offices  or  places  under  the  national  and 
State  governments  are  allotted  to  women.  A  con- 
siderable number  are  postmistresses,  some  of  them 
in  important  cities.  From  five  hundred  to  one 
thousand  women  are  clerks  in  the  various  depart- 
ments at  Washington.  In  the  offices  of  the  State 
governments  there  are  a  considerable  number 
employed  as  clerks.  An  attempt  has  been  made 
but  we  believe  as  yet  unsuccessfully,  to  secure  for 
them,  in  one  or  two  instances,  the  position  of 
assessor  or  collector  of  internal  revenue.  A  few 
are  employed  in  the  Custom-house  at  New  York, 
and  perhaps  in  some  of  the  custom-houses  in 
other  cities.  They  do  not  yet,  as  clerks,  receive 
equal  compensation  with  male  clerks  of  the  same 
grade ;  and  partly  for  the  reason,  that  with  some 
honorable  exceptions,  their  work  is  not  equal,  either 
in  quality  or  quantity,  to  that  of  the  male  clerks. 
That  some  of  them  do  as  much,  and  do  it  as  well 
as  the  men,  is  undoubtedly  true,  and  that  most  of 
them  could  do  so,  is  equally  true ;  but  the  system 
of  appointing  these  women  clerks  has  been  very 
corrupt.  They  were  generally  appointed  on  the 
urgent  requests  of  members  of  Congress,  and  were 
usually  relatives  or  favorites  of  those  who  solicited 
their  appointment.  They  were  often  incompetent 
for  the  duties  of  their  positions,  as,  indeed,  compe- 
tency had  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  the  matter ; 


gO  LEGAL    STATUS    OP    WOMEN. 

they  were  often  gay,  frivolous  girls,  who  cared 
more  for  flirtations  than  work.  If  the  Civil  Ser- 
vice bill  were  passed,  and  those  only  appointed 
who  could  sustain  a  competitive  examination, 
there  would  be  no  difficulty  in  regard  to  salaries  ; 
the  same  work  would  command  the  same  pay, 
whether  the  clerk  were  man  or  woman. 

The  only  approach  to  the  grant  of  the  suffrage 
to  women  which  has  been  made  by  any  of 
our  Legislatures  (except  Minnesota),  is  a  law 
passed  by  the  State  of  New  York,  authorizing 
all  persons  who  contributed  regularly  to  the  sup- 
port of  public  worship  in  any  religious  society  in- 
corporated under  a  general  law  of  the  State,  to 
vote  at  the  regular  meetings  of  such  society.  In 
Minnesota,  the  Legislature  passed  an  amendment 
to  the  State  constitution  in  1868,  admitting  the 
participation  of  women  in  the  suffrage,  and  it  was 
ratified  by  the  people  by  a  small  majority  early 
in  1869,  but  no  election  has  yet  been  held  under 
it.  It  is,  as  we  have  said,  desirable  that  there 
should  be  a  greater  uniformity  in  the  legislation 
of  the  different  States  in  regard  to  the  rights  and 
conditions  of  women.  On  some  points,  as  for 
instance  in  the  facility  of  divorce,  and  in  the  case 
of  Minnesota,  the  conferring  the  right  of  suffrage, 
a  few  of  them  have  gone  too  far ;  but  on  matters 
of  much  greater  moment,  some  are  far  behind 
their  true  position,  and  in  some  particulars  none 
have  fully  come  up  to  their  duty.  The  true 


LEGAL    STATUS   OF   WOMEN.  gj 

standard  for  legislation  in  relation  to  woman,  can 
be  ascertained  by  regarding  her  as  the  help-meet, 
the  associate,  the  complement  of  man,  and,  as 
thus,  entitled  to  equal  justice  with  him  in  regard 
to  her  person,  her  property,  her  moral,  intellectual, 
and  social  condition.  In  the  marriage  relation, 
though  her  duties  and  -her  sphere  of  activities 
may  be  different  from  that  of  the  man,  yet,  if  she 
performs  honorably  and  truly  her  duties,  she 
should  be  entitled  to  an  equal  share  of  the  prop- 
erty, and  of  the  responsibility  with  the  husband  ; 
no  restrictions  should  be  placed  on  her  inheritance 
as  his  widow,  which  would  not  be  placed  on  his 
as  her  widower ;  she  should  be  placed  in  the 
same  relation  as  guardian  of  their  children,  that 
he  would  be,  in  the  event  of  her  death ;  and  in  the 
disposition  of  the  property  accumulated  by  their 
joint  labors,  she  should  not  be  hampered  any 
more  than  her  husband  would  have  been. 

In  regard  to  education  and  intellectual  culture, 
it  is  rather  the  practice  than  the  law  which  needs 
reformation,  and  on  this  subject  we  shall  have 
more  to  say  by- and -by.  Meantime  we  may 
remark,  that  there  seems  to  be  no  good  reason 
why,  in  this  country,  as  well  as  in  France,  women 
should  not,  very  frequently,  and  wherever  com- 
petent women  can  be  found,  be  appointed  inspect- 
ors of  schools,  not  to  the  exclusion  of  male  in- 
spectors, but  in  connection  with  them.  We 
believe  that  the  public  interest  in  the  schools,  and 


g2  LEGAL    STATUS    OP    WOMEN. 

their  consequent  improvement,  would  be  greatly 
promoted  thereby.  There  are  medical  schools  for 
women  in  several  of  our  large  cities,  and  the 
course  of  instruction  is,  we  believe,  as  thorough 
in  some  of  them,  as  in  the  medical  colleges  for 
men.  The  States  have  authorized  them  to  grant 
medical  degrees,  and  the,  prejudice  which  at  first 
existed  in  regard  to  them  has  greatly  abated. 

The  legislation  on  moral  questions  involving  the 
rights  of  women  has  not  as  yet  come  up  to  its  true 
standard,  and  will  not  until  the  principle  is  fully 
recognized  that  the  guilt  of  the  man  should  re- 
ceive the  same  measure  of  punishment  and  of 
social  reprobation  as  that  of  the  woman.  If  the 
one  is  to  be  reckoned  an  outcast  for  her  offenses 
against  the  purity  of  society,  let  the  other  be  ban- 
ished from  society  also ;  if  society  receives  the 
one  on  evidence  of  his  penitence  (too  often  is  he 
now  received  without  that  evidence),  then  let  the 
erring  one  of  the  other  sex,  who  seeks  pardon 
from  God  and  man,  be  permitted  to  make  an 
effort  for  a  better  life,  and  encouraged  to  succeed. 
Seduction  should  be  severely  punished,  and  the 
libertine  driven  from  society  as  infamous. 

The  progress  which  has  been  made  in  the  last 
few  years  in  the  legislation  in  regard  to  women, 
indicates,  that,  in  an  enlightened  Christian  commu- 
nity, the  legislators  have  no  intention  of  oppressing 
women;  that  they  are  willing  to  do  them  justice, 
when  they  understand  fully  their  claims  and  their 


LEGAL    STATUS    OP    "WOMEN;  gg 

rights ;  and  though  the  progress  of  legislation  may- 
be slow,  it  will  be  sure  in  the  end  to  give  to  the 
sex  all  they  can  rightfully  claim.  We  could  de- 
sire, indeed,  that  woman  should  not  have  occasion 
to  claim  as  a  right,  what  should  be  freely  and 
promptly  bestowed  as  a  boon ;  but  the  wheels  of 
legislation  always  move  tardily.  Still  we  are 
satisfied,  that  women  will  sooner  be  invested  with 
all  their  rights  by  an  appeal  to  the  justice  of  men, 
than  they  would  by  an  attempt  to  obtain  them 
through  personal  legislation  for  themselves.  We 
do  not  despair  of  the  millennium,  because  its  com- 
ing is  delayed,  when  we  see  with  each  year  new 
triumphs  of  right  over  might,  of  justice  and  right- 
eousness over  ages  of  hoary  wrong,  of  gentleness 
and  peace  over  outrage  and  bloodshed.  So,  too, 
we  may  not  yield  to  discouragement  in  regard  to 
the  prevalence  of  that  fairness  and  chivalric  honor, 
which  is  ready  to  yield  somewhat  more  than 
absolute  justice,  in  its  desire  not  to  wrong  those 
who  have  placed  their  interests  in  its  keeping — 
when  we  see  such  progress  as  the  past  twenty 
years  have  witnessed,  toward  giving  woman  her 
rightful  place  in  society,  and  in  the  common- 
wealth. 


CHAPTER  V. 

HAVING  thus  defined  the  present  legal  status  of 
woman,  we  proceed  to  consider  what  are  her  true 
relations  to  man,  what  the  specific  characteristics 
of  her  mental  organization,  and  wherein  she  differs 
from  man  in  her  physical,  mental,  and  moral 
structure. 

These  inquiries  we  deem  necessary  to  the 
determination  of  her  capacity  for,  and  adaptation 
to,  the  various  pursuits  and  employments  in  which 
of  late  it  is  deemed,  by  some,  desirable  that  she 
should  engage. 

And  here,  at  the  very  threshold  of  our  investi- 
gation, we  are  met  by  the  positive  assertion  of 
Mr.  J.  Stuart  Mill,  that  it  is  impossible,  in  the 
present  state  of  society,  to  know  any  thing  cor- 
rectly on  the  subject  of  woman's  nature  or  capaci- 
ties. Mr.  Mill  is  a  philosopher  and  political 
economist  of  distinguished  ability,  and  his  dec- 
larations are  to  be  received  with  respect,  even 
where  we  are  compelled  to  differ  from  them. 
From  his  stand-point  it  may  be  impossible  to  come 
at  any  correct  conclusion  on  these  subjects,  just 
as  it  is  impossible  for  an  observer  who  stands  at 
the  water-level  of  the  great  can  on  of  the  Colorado 


TRUE    RELATIONS   OF   WOMAN  TO   MAN.      g5 

River,  to  discern  the  character  of  the  landscape  at 
the  top  and  beyond  the  perpendicular  wall,  which 
rises  more  than  a  mile  above  him. 

But  looking  at  the  subject  from  a  different 
point,  and  regarding  woman  as  created  by  the 
Almighty  for  a  definite  purpose  and  end,  we  beg 
leave  to  affirm,  with  all  due  respect  to  Mr.  Mill, 
that  it  is  possible  to  know  something  of  her  nature, 
her  relations  to  man,  and  her  capacities.  That, 
under  other  circumstances,  she  might  develop 
abilities  which  have  hitherto  remained  latent,  is 
very  probable,  and  should  be  taken  into  the  account 
in  any  estimate  of  what  she  may  accomplish; 
but  we  are  more  concerned  at  present  with  the 
powers  she  has  developed  in  the  past  six  thousand 
years,  than  with  those  which  are  yet  in  abey- 
ance. 

To  any  one  who  has  read  carefully  and  thought- 
fully those  portions  of  the  first  three  chapters  of 
Genesis  which  we  have  quoted  in  our  introduction, 
it  will,  we  think,  be  evident,  that  the  All-wise 
Creator,  in  the  formation  of  woman,  intended  to 
put  her  in  certain  peculiar  relations  to  man  which 
had  no  parallel  in  the  rest  of  his  creation. 

With  the  inferior  animals,  their  creation  in  pairs 
had,  for  its  primary  object,  the  propagation  of  their 
several  species,  and  any  other  distinction  was 
wholly  subordinate  to  this  ;  but  in  the  creation  of 
the  human  pair,  other  purposes  and  designs  min- 
gled with  this,  in  the  mind  of  the  Creator.  This 


gg      TRUE    RELATIONS    OF    WOMAN    TO    MAN. 

is  evident  from  the  period  which  elapsed  between 
the  creation  of  the  man  arid  the  woman ;  from  the 
duties  which  he  performed  in  that  period ;  from 
the  sense  of  want  of  a  companion — a  help  meet  or 
fit  for  him — which  he  had  experienced,  and  his 
Maker  had  observed ;  from  the  circumstances  of 
her  creation ;  from  the  apparently  divinely  inspired 
declaration  of  Adam  :  "  This  is  now  bone  of  my 
bones,  and  flesh  of  my  flesh  :  she  shall  be  called 
woman,  because  she  was  taken  out  of  man ;"  and 
from  the  conferring  of  a  joint  dominion  upon  the 
pair  over  the  animal  tribes. 

We  can  infer  that  it  was  not  the  intention  of  the 
Almighty  to  create  as  a  help-meet  for  Adam,  one 
who  should  be  in  all  respects  his  peer  or  equal, 
else  would  he  have  created  another  man  to  be  his 
associate,  or  a  woman  from  material  entirely  dis- 
tinct from  his  body,  and  of  stature  and  physical 
power  equal  to  his.  To  have  done  this,  would 
have  almost  inevitably  led  to  strife  in  regard  to 
authority  and  precedence,  and  perhaps  eventually 
to  the  division  of  the  earth  between  equal  and 
opposing  chiefs. 

But  the  woman  is  taken  from  his  own  flesh  and 
bones.  She  is  a  part  of  himself,  and  her  sympa- 
thies, her  affections,  and  -her  nature,  are  so  iden- 
tical, that  while  she  is  to  be  his  associate  and 
helper,  she  is  but  a  part  of  himself.  Yet  this  very 
language  of  both  Adam  and  the  Creator  implies, 
in  some  degree,  a  subordination  to  the  man,  whose 


TRUE    RELATIONS    OF    WOMAN    TO    MAN.      gy 

helper  she  is  to  be.  With  the  Divine  approval, 
Adam  assumes  the  right  to  assign  to  her  a  name, 
as  he  had  previously  done  to  the  animal  creation  ; 
and  while  that  name  of  itself  implies  the  nearness 
and  dearness  of  the  relation,  it  also  implies  that  he 
is  the  head,  the  ruler,  while  yet  also  the  associate. 

We  have  already  noticed  how  this  authority  of 
the  man,  and  subordination  of  the  woman,  is  still 
more  distinctly  stated  in  the  sentence  pronounced 
upon  the  woman,  after  her  temptation  and  fall, 
and  in  part,  we  must  believe,  because  she  had 
undertaken  to  act  independently  of  her  associate 
and  head  :  "  Thy  desire  shall  be  to  thy  husband, 
and  he  shall  rule  over  thee,"  or,  more  literally, 
"Thou  shalt  be  subject  to  thy  husband,  and  he 
shall  rule  over  thee." 

We  have  shown,  in  our  historical  sketch,  how 
cruelly  and  harshly  this  sentence  had  been  enforced 
by  the  selfishness  of  barbarous  and  half-civilized 
nations  ;  and  how  even  the  cultivated  Greeks  and 
Romans  had  made  woman  either  a  drudge  in 
domestic  life,  or  the  slave  of  their  lusts.  We  have 
seen  how,  in  the  dawn  of  Christianity,  its  Almighty 
Founder  compassionated  the  condition  of  woman, 
and  though  not  removing  the  yoke  of  subordina- 
tion, yet  lightened  its  weight,  and  sought  to  infuse 
into  the  hearts  of  men  that  gentleness  which 
should  substitute  the  law  of  love  for  the  law  of 
force.  In  the  ages  since,  men  have  too  often 
recurred  to  the  sentence  in  Eden,  and  interpreted 


88      TRUE    RELATIONS    OF    WOMAN    TO    MAN. 

it  in  its  harsh  and  oppressive  sense,  rather  than 
in  the  spirit  of  Christ. 

That  the  Creator,  who  understood  thoroughly, 
if  his  creatures  do  not,  the  relations  which  the 
pair  he  had  created  bore  to  each  other,  intended 
that  the  woman  should  be  in  some  sense  subordi- 
nated to  the  man,  seems  evident,  not  only  from 
the  circumstances  of  her  creation,  and  the  penal 
sentence,  but  from  the  nature  of  things.  While 
there  are  instances  in  which  the  woman  possesses 
the  sounder  judgment  and  the  clearer  intellect  of 
the  two,  the  presumption  is  in  favor  of  the  posses- 
sion in  greater  degree  by  the  man,  of  those  fac- 
ulties which  go  to  make  up  the  governing  power. 
In  a  family,  as  in  the  State,  the  control  must  be 
exercised  by  a  single  mind,  so  that  the  design  of 
the  Creator  seems  to  have  been  that  the  man 
should  be  the  head,  as  he  is  so  often  called,  and 
the  woman  his  vicegerent.  To  this  view  accords 
the  physical  differences  in  the  two  sexes ;  the  man 
— of  larger,  sturdier  frame,  of  commanding  port 
and  presence,  with  a  voice  heavy,  thunderous,  and 
fitted  to  command — able  to  take  the  lead  in  all  en- 
terprises requiring  strength  and  power  of  executing 
the  purposes  he  has  conceived;  the  woman  smaller 
in  stature,  and  more  delicately  and  finely  built, 
her  form  and  features  attractive,  with  a  beauty 
which  we  are  accustomed  to  designate  as  feminine  /• 
her  voice  sweeter,  softer,  and  more  melodious, 
except  in  the  high  notes,  her  whole  figure  slighter, 


TRUE    RELATIONS    OF    WOMAN    TO    MAN.      g0 

and  giving  the  impression  of  litheness  and  grace, 
rather  than  of  great  strength. 

Keeping  in  mind  that  woman  was  to  be  a  help- 
meet  (or  fit)  for  man,  that  is,  the  complement  of 
his  nature,  supplying  those  faculties  and  qualities 
which  were  most  deficient  in  his  more  rugged 
nature,  we  turn  next  to  her  intellectual  character- 
istics, and  find,  as  we  might  expect,  that  she  is 
strongest  where  he  is  weakest,  and  weakest  where 
he  is  strongest.  Her  intuitive  faculties  surpass 
those  of  man.  She  leaps  to  a  conclusion,  and 
usually  a  correct  one,  which  he  reaches  only  by  a 
long  and  painful  process.  In  the  elementary 
studies  of  our  schools,  she  easily  outruns  her 
male  competitor,  committing  her  lessons  to 
memory  with  wonderful  facility,  and  generally 
forgetting  them  as  readily ;  unraveling  with  ready 
skill  the  intricacies  of  the  lower  mathematics; 
having  a  special  fondness  for  the  acquisition  of  a 
long  list  of  geographical,  historical,  or  scientific 
names,  which  she  repeats  with  parrot-like  readi- 
ness, and  a  fortnight  later  can  not  remember  them; 
acquires  a  moderate  but  superficial  knowledge  of 
languages  easily,  but  very  rarely  has  any  thorough 
mastery  of  their  structure,  or  any  acquaintance 
with  their  literature ;  is  fond  of  rhetoric,  and  gen- 
erally of  composition ;  but  has  a  great  horror  of 
logic,  or  analytical  science.  She  is  strongest  in 
the  studies  depending  upon  the  exercise  of  the 
perceptive  faculties,  and  weakest  in  those  which 

4*  w 


90      TRUE    RELATIONS    OF   WOMAN    TO    MAN. 

require  the  use  of  the  reasoning  or  analyzing 
faculty. 

Woman  has  but  little  genius  for  invention; 
she  may  apply  or  adapt  an  invention  to  some  pur- 
pose for  which  it  was  not  at  first  intended,  though 
she  does  this  but  rarely ;  but  of  the  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  inventions  which  have  received 
letters  patent,  very  few,  and  those  mostly  not  of 
great  importance,  are  the  inventions  of  women. 

This  lack  of  creative  power  manifests  itself 
also  in  her  writings.  Many  women  write  well; 
some  eloquently.  Most  women  describe  any  per- 
son or  thing  they  have  seen,  well ;  many  narrate 
incidents  brilliantly ;  but  even  in  the  best  novels 
written  by  women,  how  seldom  do  we  find  a  real 
creation,  a  character  at  the  same  time  life-like 
and  original.  Grant  that  not  all,  or  perhaps  the 
greater  part,  of  the  male  novelists  are  successful 
in  the  creation  of  men  and  women  who  are  not 
automatons,  the  fact  remains,  that,  in  our  own 
times,  there  are  at  least  a  half-score  of  them  who 
can  fairly  lay  claim  to  this  credit;  but  while 
there  are  at  least  ten  novels  written  by  women  to 
one  written  by  a  man,  it  would  be  difficult  to  find 
three  among  them  all  who  have  manifested  any 
creative  genius.  We  are  aware  that  one  name 
will  rise  to  the  lips  of  many  of  our  readers,  as 
that  of  a  novelist  possessing  great  creative  power; 
but,  while  we  honor  highly  Mrs.  Stowe's  genius 
and  ability  as  a  writer,  we  are  forced  to  the  con- 


TRUE    RELATIONS    OF    WOMAN    TO    MAN.      93 

elusion  by  her  later  works,  that  she  only  de- 
scribes what  she  has  seen,  drawing  her  pictures 
with  great  truthfulness  and  beauty,  but  that  she 
has  never  created  a  character,  in  all  her  numerous 
fictions. 

In  the  fine  arts,  painting  and  sculpture,  the 
same  defect  has  characterized  their  compositions. 
They  have  described  on  canvas,  and  in  the  more 
enduring  marble,  what  they  have  seen,  what  they 
have  read,  what  they  have  heard  or  dreamed,  but 
so  far  as  we  can  learn,  they  have  never  been  suc- 
cessful in  putting  an  original  conception,  or  crea- 
tion, on  canvas  or  in  marble.  We  have  no  dis- 
position to  say  that  they  can  not :  we  have  a  very 
high  opinion  of  the  genius  and  talent  of  women, 
and  would  deny  no  possibility  of  their  future  ;  but 
as  to  the  sex  in  general,  we  do  not  believe  that 
their  abilities  are  greatest  in  that  direction. 

In  their  moral  and  social  nature  we  find  a 
similar  distinction  between  men  and  women  as  in 
the  intellectual  faculties,  so  far  as  such  distinc- 
tion is  possible.  In  woman  the  emotional  nature 
is  most  developed ;  in  man,  the  judgment  and 
will.  Woman  is  naturally  more  religious  than 
man ;  her  tendencies  to  worship  and  reverence  are 
stronger,  and  her  religious  experience  is  usually 
deeper  and  more  abiding;  the  exaltation  of  her 
mental  faculties,  under  the  influence  of  intense 
religious  emotion,  is  greater  than  that  of  man, 
and  hence  there  have  been  many  more  instances 


94      TEUE    RELATIONS    OP    WOMAN    TO   MAN. 

of  triumphant  deaths  among  women  under  circum- 
stances of  great  physical  suffering,  or  even  under 
the  terrors  of  martyrdom,  than  among  men. 

Women  are  usually  more  patient  and  tolerant 
of  suffering  than  men;  a  larger  measure  of  it 
usually  falls  to  their  lot,  and  they  endure  it  with 
less  complaint. 

On  the  other  hand,  they  are  seldom  as  perse- 
vering as  men ;  and  if  the  result  desired  is  not 
reached  within  a  moderate  time,  they  more  readily 
weary  of  the  pursuit.  Still  temperament  has  much 
to  do  with  this ;  there  have  been  instances  of 
feminine  perseverance  which  would  do  the  highest 
credit  to  either  sex. 

The  imagination  being  more  active  in  women 
than  men,  the  temptation  to  that  form  of  untruth- 
fulness,  known  as  "  white  lying,"  is  somewhat 
stronger  with  them  than  with  the  other  sex.  This 
tendency  is  particularly  observable  in  that  condi- 
tion of  the  health  known  as  hysteria,  though  it 
would  not  be  just  to  regard  a  morbid  manifestation 
as  an  inherent  fault  of  woman's  nature. 

The  sympathetic  nature  of  woman  is  one  of  the 
chief  glories  of  her  moral  character.  Men  are,  in 
general,  harder  and  more  cruel  than  women. 
Herself  often  a  sufferer,  woman  has  learned  to 
enter  into  the  heart  of  the  suffering,  and  can 
comfort  and  console  them  under  the  deepest 
sorrows.  In  all  the  Christian  ages,  woman  has 
ministered,  with  tender  hand,  to  the  suffering 


TRUE    RELATIONS    OF    WOMAN    TO    MAN.      95 

and  sorrowing,  to  the  sick  and  the  wounded,  the 
prisoners  and  those  appointed  to  die.  In  our  own 
time,  Florence  Nightingale,  and  her  noble  com- 
panions in  the  Crimean  war,  the  thousands  in  our 
own  four  years'  struggle,  and  Miss  Safford,  Madame 
Mario,  and  their  associates  in  the  recent  German 
war,  have  demonstrated  the  remarkable  executive 
ability  of  woman  in  the  organization  and  develop- 
ment of  great  philanthropic  enterprises. 

This  organizing  and  executive  faculty  is  a  more 
general  endowment  of  woman  than  has  been 
usually  acknowledged.  It  differs  materially  from 
the  governing  faculty,  which  Rev.  Dr.  Bushnell, 
in  his  very  able  essay  on  "  Women's  Suffrage," 
contends,  on  somewhat  insufficient  grounds,  that 
they  do  not  possess.  The  faculty  of  organizing 
and  managing  affairs  successfully  depends  rather 
upon  tact  and  the. intuitive  perception  of  human 
character,  and  of  the  fitness  of  things  (all  womanly 
traits),  than  upon  any  demonstrative  power  of 
governing.  The  executive  officer  of  a  ship  of 
war  is  not  the  commander,  but  one  who,  in  subor- 
dination to  his  chief,  arranges  the,  details  of  the 
ship's  service,  and  sees  that  every  man  performs 
his  duty.  For  positions  somewhat  analogous  to 
this,  our  great  merchants  and  manufacturers  say 
that  women,  properly  trained,  are  superior  to 
men. 

There  have  not  been  wanting  instances,  notable 
ones,  in  which,  though  the  governing  faculty  is 


96      TRUE    RELATIONS    OF    WOMAN    TO    MAN. 

regarded  as  properly  and  appropriately  the  heri- 
tage of  man,  women  have  acquitted  themselves 
admirably  in  its  exercise.  We  will  not  speak  of 
queens,  since  some  part  of  their  apparent  skill  in 
governing  is  doubtless  due  to  the  able  male  coun- 
selors who  constitute  their  cabinets  ;  but  how  can 
we  deny  the  ability  to  govern  and  control  to  such 
women  as  Joan  of  Arc,  or  to  the  Countess  Teleki 
of  Hungary,  who,  in  the  Hungarian  war  of  1848, 
led  a  division  of  cavalry  in  three  several  assaults 
upon  a  body  of  Austrian  troops,  and,  twice  re- 
pulsed, rallied  her  troops  the  third  time,  and  with 
her  helmet  doffed  and  her  beautiful  golden  hair 
streaming  in  the  winds,  shouted  the  war-cry, 
"  Eljen  Kossuth,"  and  hurled  them  upon  the 
enemy ;  and,  in  the  words  of  the  Austrian  com- 
mander, "  Neither  men  nor  devils  could  have 
resisted  that  onset ;  we  were  swept  down  like 
grass  before  the  mower's  scytne."  The  beautiful 
countess  fell  in  the  assault,  but  she  had  proved 
her  ability  to  command.  Who  could  question  the 
faculty  for  command  of  that  noble  Michigan 
woman,  Mrs.  Anna  Etheridge,  who,  at  the  battle 
of  Chancellofsville,  seeing  the  regiment  to  which 
she  was  attached  flying  from  the  field,  seized 
their  flag,  and  with  a  "  For  shame,  boys  !  go  back 
to  the  field !  I  will  lead  you,"  checked  their  retreat, 
and  led  them  back  into  the  thickest  of  the  fight  ? 
Nay,  do  we  not  often  find  in  our  public  schools 
and  academies,  female  teachers  whose  skill  and 


TRUE    RELATIONS    OP   WOMAN    TO    MAN.      97 

tact  in  the  government  of  their  schools  enables 
them  to  bring  into  willing  subjection  grown  boys 
who  have  proved  an  overmatch  for  male  teachers  ? 

In  this  analysis  of  the  differences,  physical, 
mental,  social,  and  moral,  between  the  two  sexes, 
it  must  be  remembered  that  we  have  only  dealt 
in  general  characteristics  of  the  sexes.  There  are 
numerous  exceptions  under  each,  but  none,  we 
believe,  which  will  invalidate  our  general  esti- 
mate. 

We  conclude,  then,  that  there  is  evidence  in 
the  Scriptures,  and  in  the  physical,  mental,  moral, 
and  social  constitution  of  the  sex,  that  her 
Creator  intended  woman  to  be  the  ally,  the  help.- 
meet,  the  associate,  and  co-worker  with  man,  but 
so  far  in  subordination  to  him,  that  he  is  to  be 
recognized  as  the  head,  and  possess  the  chief 
authority  in  the  family,  but  always  with  due 
regard  to  the  wife,  as  his  vicegerent,  and  next  in 
authority  and  power. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

BEFORE  proceeding  to  consider  the  employments 
of  women,  it  may  be  well  to  give  some  account 
of  the  present  system  of  education  of  the  sex,  and 
to  show  its  faults  and  disadvantages. 

In  England,  aside  from  the  dame  schools  and 
the  national  schools,  in  which,  for  the  most  part, 
only  the  children  of  the  poor,  of  both  sexes,  are 
taught,  the  only  schools  for  the  education  of  girls 
are  the  endowed  female  schools,  which  are  few 
in  number,  and  the  female  seminaries  or  finish- 
ing schools,  which  are  generally  very  expensive. 
There  is  a  provision  for  girls  in  some  of  the  great 
charity  schools,  such  as  Christ  Church  and  West- 
minster, but  very  few  girls  ever  enter.  The 
middle  and  higher  classes  very  generally  employ 
governesses  for  their  daughters,  giving  them  a 
year  or  two  at  the  finishing  schools  before  they 
"  come  out,"  as  the  phrase  is. 

While  the  education  of  the  women  of  the  poorer 
classes  in  England  is  greatly  inferior  to  that  of  a 
corresponding  class  here,  a  large  proportion  being 
unable  to  read  or  write,  the  girls  of  the  middle  and 
higher  classes  receive  generally  a  more  thorough 
training  than  the  daughters  of  families  possessing 


EDUCATION   OF  WOMEN.  99 

a  competency  here.  The  system  of  education  is 
defective,  being  directed  largely  to  what  may  be 
called  "accomplishments,"  rather  than  to  true 
mental  culture.  The  English  girl  who  has  receiv- 
ed the  diploma  of  a  fashionable  finishing  school,  if 
she  has  a  taste  for  music,  usually  plays  well — ar- 
tistically— on  the  piano  and  harp,  and  if  she  has  a 
good  voice,  sings  correctly  and  with  expression ; 
she  generally  draws  with  accuracy,  and  if  she  pos- 
sesses artistic  taste,  sketches  from  nature  very  ef- 
fectively ;  she  is  usually  quite  perfect  in  her  French 
grammar  and  pronunciation,  and  often  writes 
and  speaks  the  language  correctly,  though  she  has 
no  considerable  knowledge  of  its  literature.  In 
many  cases  she  has  a  fair  knowledge  of  Italian 
and  German  also,  and  an  elementary  one  of  Latin. 
In  English  studies,  the  range  is  not  as  extensive, 
as  in  American  schools  for  girls,  but  they  are  more 
thoroughly  mastered.  Generally,  physical  science 
is  ignored  in  the  English  schools  for  girls,  though 
a  few  teach  the  elements  of  chemistry,  philosophy, 
and  botany.  The  range  of  studies  taught  to  the 
English  girl  is  not  great,  and,  as  we  have  said,  is 
altogether  too  much  in  the  way  of  "accomplish- 
ments ;"  but  what  is  taught,  is,  for  the  most  part, 
very  thoroughly  acquired,  and  not  readily  forgot- 
ten. One  reason  of  the  peculiarities  and  the  thor- 
oughness of  this  system  probably  is,  that  among 
the  middle  class,  and  even  the  lower  ranks  of  the 
nobility  and  gentry,  owing  to  the  law  of  primogeni- 


100  EDUCATION   OF    WOMEN. 

ture  and  the  loss  of  position,  office,  or  property,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  families  of  clergymen,  army  offi- 
cers, civil  officers,  &c.,  so  large  a  proportion  of 
the  daughters  are  obliged  to  teach  for  a  liveli- 
hood, either  as  governesses,  or  in  the  finishing 
schools. 

Yet  the  course  of  instruction  for  girls  is  much 
narrower,  and  less  productive  of  mental  develop- 
ment than  that  of  the  boys  ;  and  we  all  know  how 
defective  in  every  thing,  except  classical  and  mathe- 
matical training,  is  the  higher  education  of  young 
men  in  England. 

In  France,  the  education  of  women  is  conducted 
on  a  plan  which  is  calculated  to  dissipate  and  en- 
feeble the  intellect;  and  can  never  develop,  suc- 
cessfully, the  mental  powers.  It  makes  showy 
women,  brilliant  in  their  early  youth,  but  super- 
ficial, and  with  no  desire  for  higher  or  more 
thorough  culture.  Much  of  the  education  of  girls  is 
conducted  in  convents,  and  is  intensely  superficial. 
Dissatisfied  with  this,  Louis  Napoleon  has  caused 
the  establishment  of  numerous  schools  for  girls,  cor- 
responding to  the  colleges  or  lyceums  for  boys  in 
Paris.  But  his  Minister  of  Instruction,  M.  Duruy, 
regarding,  as  most  Frenchmen  do,  the  female  in- 
tellect as  greatly  weaker,  and  less  capable  of 
grappling  with  abstruse  studies  than  that  of  man, 
has  caused  a  series  of  text-books  to  be  prepared 
especially  for  female  schools  throughout  the 
empire  (some  of  them  were  prepared  by  M.  Duruy 


EDUCATION    OF    WOMEN". 

himself),  which  are  avowedly  simpler  and  more 
superficial  than  those  in  use  in  the  colleges  and 
lyceums.  They  are,  really,  mere  surface  books, 
containing  not  quite  so  much  information  in  regard 
to  their  respective  topics  as  would  be  communi- 
cated in  an  average  popular  lecture  on  the  subject ; 
and  the  knowledge  thus  imparted  is  so  diluted  and 
overlaid  with  verbiage,  that  there  is  hardly  an  idea 
to  a  lesson.  A  Frenchwoman,  who  acquires  a 
thorough  education,  must  do  so  in  the  face  of  great 
disadvantages,  and  deserves  great  credit  for  her 
energy  and  perseverance. 

In  Germany,  the  education  of  women  is  con- 
ducted on  a  more  sensible  and  practical  plan. 
The  training  of  the  public  schools  in  most  of  the 
German  States  is  compulsory,  and  the  girls  pur- 
sue the  same  studies,  and  from  the  same  text- 
books, as  the  boys.  In  the  schools  of  higher 
education,  the  course  of  instruction,  though  giving 
more  attention  to  accomplishments  than  that  of 
the  gymnasia  or  universities,  still  requires  thorough 
and  exact  scholarship. 

Indeed,  under  existing  circumstances,  we 
should  regard  some  of  the  German  schools  for 
girls  as  better  adapted  to  impart  a  thorough  edu- 
cation to  a  young  woman,  than,  with  a  very  few 
exceptions,  any  in  England,  France,  or  the  United 
States. 

Female  education  in  the  United  States  needs  a 
thorough  and  radical  reform.  In  our  public 


102  EDUCATION   OF  WOMEN. 

schools,  where,  except  in  the  large  cities,  the  two 
sexes  receive  their  elementary  education  together, 
the  instruction  is  tolerable ;  though,  partly  from 
defective  textbooks,  and  partly  from  the  lack  of 
competent  teachers,  it  is  less  thorough  than  it 
should  be.  In  a  considerable  number  of  the  large 
towns  of  New  England  and  New  York,  and  in 
some  of  the  larger  cities  of  the  South  and  West, 
graded,  high,  or  union  schools,  are  established,  into 
which  a  considerable  number  of  girls  from  the 
public  grammar  schools  are  admitted,  and  have 
the  opportunity  of  acquiring,  usually  in  connec- 
tion with  the  other  sex,  a  fair  English  education, 
and,  in  some  of  them,  a  moderate  amount  of  Latin, 
Greek,  French,  German,  and  vocal,  but  not  often 
instrumental,  music.  The  training,  in  the  branches 
taught  in  these  schools,  is  generally  thorough,  and 
those  who  have  been  educated  in  them,  though 
deficient  in  some  of  the  "  accomplishments,"  have 
really  a  far  more  practical  education  than  the 
graduates  of  the  most  popular  female  seminaries. 
In  the  West,  there  are  now  about  twenty-five 
"  colleges,"  some  of  them  hardly  more  than  ordi- 
.  nary  high  schools,  which  receive  students  of  both 
sexes,  and  conduct  their  education  in  the  same 
classes,  and  in  all  respects  precisely  alike.  The 
professors  and  instructors  in  these  colleges  are  of 
both  sexes,  and  the  classes  are  generally  very 
full.  In  some,  as  at  Oberlin,  Ohio  ;  Antioch  Col- 
lege, Yellow  Springs,  Ohio;  Adrian  College, 


EDUCATION   OP   WOMEN. 

Adrian,  Mich.,  &c.,  the  course  of  instruction  is 
full  and  tolerably  thorough,  and  they  have  grad- 
uated many  distinguished  men  and  women.  The 
plan  of  admitting  both  sexes  works  well  where 
there  is  a  capable  and  efficient  faculty.  Dr. 
Bushnell,  whose  qualifications  for  giving  an  opin- 
ion on  this  subject,  all  will  admit,  says  in  his  recent 
work :  "  The  joining,  for  example,  of  the  two 
sexes  in  common  studies  and  a  common  college 
life — what  could  be  more  un-university-like,  and 
morally  speaking,  more  absurd  ?  And  as  far  as 
the  young  women  are  concerned,  what  could  be 
more  unwomanly  and  really  more  improper?  I 
confess,  with  some  mortification,  that  when  the 
thing  was  first  done,  I  was  not  a  little  shocked 
even  by  the  rumor  of  it ;  but  when,  by  and  by, 
some  fifteen  years  ago,  I  drifted  into  Oberlin,  and 
spent  a  Sunday  there,  I  had  a  new  chapter  opened 
that  has  cost  me  the  loss  of  a  considerable  cargo 
of  wise  opinions,  all  scattered  in  loose  wreck, 

never   again  to  be  gathered I  learned, 

for  the  first  time,  what  it  means  that  the  sexes, 
not  merely  as  by  two-and-two,  but  as  a  large 
open  scale  of  society,  have  a  complementary 
relation,  existing  as  helps  to  each  other,  and  that 
humanity  is  a  disjointed  creature,  running  only  to 
waste  and  disorder,  where  they  are  put  so  far 
asunder  as  to  leave  either  one  or  the  other  in  a 
properly  monastic  and  separate  state.  Here  were 
gathered  for  instruction  large  numbers  of  pupils, 


106  EDUCATION  OP   WOMEN. 

male  and  female,  pursuing  their  studies  together, 
in  the  same  classes  and  lessons,  under  the  same 
teachers ;  the  young  women  deriving  a  more  pro- 
nounced and  more  positive  character  in  their 
mental  training  from  association  with  young  men 
in  their  studies,  and  the  young  men,  a  closer  and 
more  receptive  refinement,  and .  a  more  delicate 
habitual  respect  to  what  is  in  personal  life,  from 
their  associations  with  young  women.  The  disci- 
pline of  the  institution,  watchful  as  it  properly 
should  be,  was  yet  a  kind  of  silence,  and  was  prac- 
tically null — being  carried  on  virtually  by  the  mu- 
tually qualifying  and  restraining  powers  of  the  sexes 
over  each  other.  There  was  scarcely  a  single  case  of 
discipline,  or  almost  never  more  than  one,  occurring 
in  a  year.  In  particular,  there  was  no  such  thing 
known  as  an  esprit  de  corps  in  deeds  of  mischief, 
no  conspiracies  against  order  and  the  faculty,  no 
bold  prominence  in  evil  aspired  to,  no  lying 
proudly  for  the  safety  of  the  clan,  no  barbarities 
of  hazing  perpetrated  :  and  so  the  ancient  tradi- 
tional hell-state  of  college  life,  and  all  the  immense 
ruin  of  character  propagated  by  the  club-law  of  a 
stringently  male  or  monastic  institution,  was 
totally  escaped  and  put  away.  What  we  see 
recurring  always,  where  males  are  gathered  in  a 
society  by  themselves,  whether  in  the  prison,  or 
the  shop,  or  the  school,  or  the  army — every 
beginning  of  the  esprit  de  corps  in  evil  is  kept 
under,  shamed  away,  made  impossible  by  the 


EDUCATION    OF  WOMEN.  107 

association  of  the  gentler  sex,  who  can  not  co- 
operate in  it,  and  can  not  think  of  it  with  re- 
spect. 

"  And  what  so  long  ago  was  proved  by  this 
earliest  experiment,  has  since  been  proved,  a  dozen 
or  twenty  times  over,  by  other  experiments  under 
other  forms  of  religion,  as  well  as  under  all  varie- 
ties of  literary  culture  and  social  atmosphere* 
Thus,  if  any  one  should  imagine  that  the  success 
of  this  first  trial  at  Obeiiin  (which  has  now  been 
in  existence  thirty-five  years)  was  due  to  the 
particular,  very  strongly  pronounced,  type  of  re- 
ligious influence  there  established,  he  may  hear 
(the  late)  President  Mann,  of  the  Unitarian  Col- 
lege at  Antioch  (Ohio),  where  also  the  two  sexes 
were  combined  in  the  same  studies,  uniting  in  the 
testimony :  '  We  have  the  most  diligent,  exem- 
plary institution  in  the  country.  We  passed 
through  the  last  term,  and  are  more  than  half 
through  the  present ;  and  I  have  not  had  occasion 
to  make  a  single  entry  of  any  misdemeanor  in  our 
record  book — not  a  case  for  any  serious  discipline. 
There  is  no  rowdyism  in  the  village,  no  nocturnal 
rampages  making  night  hideous.  All  is  quiet, 
peaceful ;  and  the  women  of  the  village  feel  the 
presence  of  our  students,  when  met  in  the  streets 
in  the  evening,  to  be  a  protection  rather  than  an 
exposure.  It  is  almost  five  years  since  I  came 
here,  and  as  yet  I  have  had  no  practical  joke  or 
college  prank,  as  they  are  called,  played  upon  me, 


108  EDUCATION  OP  WOMEN. 

not  in  a  single  instance.'  A  very  intelligent  writer 
in  the  Westminster  Review*  acquainted  with  this 
and  many  other  colleges,  testifies  to  the  decisive 
superiority  here  in  moral  behavior,  and  puts 
double  honor  on  the  name  before  so  transcend- 
ently  honored,  by  saying,  in  a  touch  of  pleasantry, 
that f  male  students  were  first  called  gentlemen  at 
Antioch.' " 

Mrs.  Ball,  who  visited  both  Oberlin  and  Antioch 
colleges  in  1867,  gives  later  testimony  to  the 
success  of  what  she  calls  the  double  system,  i.  e., 
having  pupils  and  teachers  of  both  sexes.  After 
a  vivid  description  of .  the  success  of  a  young 
woman  of  color,  born  a  slave,  but  a  graduate  of 
Oberlin,  in  teaching  the  classics,  winning,  as  she 
did,  the  affection  and  confidence  of  all  her  pupils, 
Mrs.  Ball  continues  :  "  Everybody  at  Oberlin  was 
loud  in  praise  of  the  double  system ;  no  one 
would  teach  now  in  any  other  sort  of  college. 
The  presence  of  women  secured  discipline.  There 
was  no  chance  for  hazing  or  any  other  antiquated 
folly.  Pupils  and  teachers,  who  had  gone  from 
Oberlin  to  Vassar,  both  missed  the  pleasant  ex- 
citement of  the  old  life." 

Dr.  Bushnell's  remarks  on  this  subject  of  the 
higher  education  of  the  two  sexes  together,  are  so 
just  and  admirable,  that  we  can  not  refrain  from 
quoting  them : — 

"  The  two  sexes  brought  together  in  this  man- 

*  Believed  to  be  Rev.  Moncure  D.  Coiiway. 


EDUCATION    OP    WOMEN.  1Q9 

ner,  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  say,  will  be  rapidly 
discovering  their  true  scale  of  merit.  It  matters 
little  whether  they  are  found  to  be  equal  or  une- 
qual in  their  talent  of  scholarship,  for  it  does  not 
follow  that  the  greatest  facility  of  acquirement  will 
be  issued  in  the  greatest  power,  or  will  even  be 
felt  as  having  now  the  greatest  practical  breadth 
and  volume.  Enough  that  both  sexes  will  better 
understand,  and  more  respect  each  other,  and  will 
learn  to  take  their  relative  places  more  exactly 
and  gracefully.  That  they  have,  in  fact,  a  com- 
plementary nature  one  to  the  other,  will  be  dis- 
tinctly felt,  and  all  but  visibly  seen ;  and  the 
college  itself,  in  its  double  combination  of  male 
and  female  impulse,  will  be  only  a  more  complete 
man  or  humanity  than  it  otherwise  could  be.  The 
male  talent,  and  the  female,  will  be  a  great  deal 
more  exactly  apprehended  than  they  have  been. 
It  will  even  be  seen  that  sex  is  predicable  of 
talent  as  of  organization,  and  both  sexes  of  mind 
will  be  receiving  qualities  and  contributions  from 
each  other  in  their  cross  relations,  such  as  answer 
with  general  exactness  to  the  husbanding  and 
meet-helping  of  the  marriage  bond  itself. 

"  Educated  on  this  footing  of  equality,  women 
will  very  soon  escape  their  unrighteous  disabilities, 
and  obtain  a  place  in  the  scale  of  estimation  that 
exactly  corresponds  with  their  personal  weight 
and  capacity,  and  more  than  that  they  have  no 
right  to  ask.  Employment  will  be  open  to  them, 


EDUCATION    OP    WOMEN. 

just  according  to  what  they  are  best  qualified  to 
do,  and  the^r  wages,  like  the  wages  also  of  men, 
will  be  in  the  exact  compound  ratio  of  what  they 
can  do  and  what  they  personally  are.  And  as 
what  they  personally  are,  includes  a  great  deal  of 
favor  to  their  woman's  look  and  voice,  they  will 
scarcely  miss  the  full  reward  of  their  industry. 
As  they  have  been  educated  with  men,  they  will 
also  become  educators  with  men,  and  if  they  can 
fill  the  highest,  most  responsible  places  of  man- 
agement and  presiding  trust,  they  must  and  will 
obtain  such  places,  and  the  rewards  that  men  have 
in  the  same.  They  will  have  professorships 
allowed  them  such  as  they  can  more  appropriately 
fill — not  of  mechanical  philosophy,  perhaps,  or 
chemistry,  or  metallurgy,  or  fortification,  but  of 
the  languages,  of  botany,  of  moral  science,  and 
not  improperly,  of  the  exact  mathematics." 

In  regard  to  this  last,  we  doubt.  The  mastery 
of  the  higher  branches  of  the  exact  mathematics, 
so  thoroughly  as  to  be  qualified  'to  teach  them, 
requires  an  analytical  power,  and  a  close,  perse- 
vering application,  which  do  not  seem  to  be  con- 
spicuous qualities  of  the  female  intellect.  We 
should  be  more  ready  to  assign  her  the  chair  of 
chemistry,  geology,  or  natural  history,  or  astron- 
omy, in  all  of  which  studies,  women  (exceptional 
cases,  certainly)  have  distinguished  themselves. 

But  to  return  to  our  consideration  of  the  con- 
dition of  female  education  in  the  United  States. 


EDUCATION    OP   WOMEN. 

Aside  from  these  colleges  on  the  double  system, 
many  of  the  normal  schools,  or  training  schools 
for  the  education  of  teachers,  admit  pupils  of  both 
sexes ;  and  their  course  of  instruction  being 
intended  to  qualify  the  pupil-teachers  to  give 
instruction  in  the  various  grades  of  the  public 
schools,  the  course  of  study  is  eminently  practical, 
and  the  teaching  generally  very  thorough.  In 
this  course  very  few  of  the  so-ealled  "  accomplish- 
ments "  are  included.  Drawing,  in  its  elementary 
forms,  and  vocal  music,  to  enable  the  teacher  to 
lead  the  music  of  the  school,  are  among  the 
studies,  but  both  are  prosecuted  only  so  far  as  to 
enable  the  future  teacher  to  give  instruction  in 
their  rudiments. 

It  is  certainly  desirable,  and  we  hope  may  at  no 
distant  day  be  found  practicable,  to  have  most  or 
all  our  colleges  and  universities  receive  young 
women  as  students,  to  pursue  the  same  studies 
with  the  young  men.  It  would,  we  believe,  result 
in  great  benefits  to  both  sexes,  and  would  in  a  few 
years  settle  the  vexed  question  of  the  compara- 
tive intellectual  abilities  of  the  two. 

At  present,  the  education  of  those  girls  who  are 
able  to  acquire  a  so-called  "  higher  education," 
aside  from  those  who  are  or  have  been  connected 
with  the  public  high  schools,  the  colleges  on  the 
double  system,  and  the  normal  or  training 
schools,  is  only  obtained  in  the  female  academies, 
female  seminaries,  colleges  for  women,  and  board- 


EDUCATION    OF    WOMEN. 

ing-schools,  which  abound  in  every  part  of  the 
country.  Nearly  four-fifths  of  the  girls  who 
receive  any  thing  more  than  a  common  school 
education,  are  taught  in  these  schools.  There 
are,  perhaps,  half  a  dozen,  and  we  should  include 
in  that  number,  Vassar  College,  Packer  Collegiate 
Institute,  Elrnira  Female  College,  the  Troy  Female 
Seminary,  Mt.  Holyoke  Female  Seminary,  and  a 
seminary  in  Central  Illinois  founded  years  ago  by 
Miss  C.  E.  Beecher,  which  are  honestly  striving 
to  give  their  pupils  a  thorough  education;  but 
they  all,  as  well  as  all  the  rest,  are  engaged  in  an 
impossible  task. 

The  years  which  girls  devote  to  school  life  are 
fewer  than  those  which  boys  spend  in  getting 
their  education.  The  boy,  after  spending  his  boy- 
hood in  a  public  school,  or  academy,  at  about  the 
age  of  fourteen  begins  to  fit  for  college ;  and, 
about  two  years  later,  enters.  His  four  years' 
college  course  completed,  he  is  ready  to  study  a 
profession,  which  usually  requires  three  years 
more. 

The  girl,  after  a  course  of  elementary  instruction, 
more  or  less  full,  and  regularly  attended  up  to  her 
twelfth  or  thirteenth  year,  but  which  is  generally 
only  sufficient  to  make  her  tolerably  familiar  with 
the  mere  rudiments  of  common  school  studies,  enters 
one  of  these  boarding-schools,  or  seminaries,  from 
which,  at  the  longest,  she  is  expected  to  gradu- 
ate in  four  years.  In  this  short  space  of  time,  she 


EDUCATION    OF    WOMEN. 

is  to  acquire  a  competent  knowledge  of  instru- 
mental music,  drawing,  and  painting  in  water- 
colors,  Latin,  French,  and  perhaps  German  and 
Italian,  higher  arithmetic,  algebra,  geometry, 
natural  philosophy,  chemistry,,  geology,  botany, 
natural  history,  physiology,  Butler's  analogy  of 
religion,  intellectual  and  moral  philosophy,  political 
economy,  &c.,  &c.  She  must  also  keep  up  her  fa- 
miliarity, or  acquire  it  if  she  had  it  not  already, 
with  geography,  grammar,  history,  penmanship, 
&c. ;  and  must  write,  usually  weekly,  exercises 
or  compositions  of  some  kind.  Her  musical  prac- 
tice must  be  constant,  and  usually  from  one  to 
two  hours  per  day  ;  and  amid  all  her  mental  labor, 
she  must  find  time  for  gymnastics,  or,  as  it  is  the 
fashion  to  call  them,  calisthenics.  Even  Sunday 
shines  no  Sabbath  day  to  her.  What  with  Bible 
classes,  and  analyses  of  sermons,  her  poor  brain  is 
nearly  as  much  overtasked  on  that  day  as  any 
other. 

The  boy  who  should  attempt  to  master  all  these 
studies  in  four  years,  with  no  more  previous 
preparation  than  the  girl  has,  would,  if  he  survived 
the  second  year,  be  a  candidate  for  an  insane  hos- 
pital or  an  idiot  asylum  before  he  had  completed 
the  third;  and  so  would  the  girl,  if  she  really  ac- 
quired any  thorough  knowledge  of  the  greater  part 
of  these  studies ;  but  she  does,  in  fact,  merely 
skim  over  most  of  them,  half  learning  some,  and 
omitting  others,  but  attaining  no  clear  or  accurate 


EDUCATION    OF    WOMEN. 

knowledge  of  more  than  one  or  two.  At  seven- 
teen or  eighteen,  the  girl  has  completed  her 
school  course,  and  in  most  instances  gladly  aban- 
dons her  books,  never  desiring  to  open  them  again. 
Of  all  the  studies  with  which  she  has  been  cram- 
med, during  the  previous  four  years,  she  has  no 
interest  in,  and  hardly  any  valuable  remembrance 
of  any  one;  even  her  music,  which  has  occupied  so 
many  weary  hours  of  her  school  life,  is  abandoned, 
or  seldom  practiced.  She  "  comes  out,"  is  soon 
married,  and  all  thought  of  further  mental  culture 
is  abandoned. 

That  we  have  not  overdrawn .  the  picture,  the 
following  naive  confession  of  a  graduate  of  one 
of  these  "  Female  Colleges,"  communicated  to 
the  New  York  Tribune  in  July,  1869,  amply 
demonstrates : — 

"  SIR  : — A  thorough  education  in  four  years  ! 
Yes,  that  is  the  tutorial  cry  of  the  country :  met- 
aphysics, languages,  history,  philosophy,  mathe- 
matics, zoology,  &c.,  &c.,  not  to  mention  the 
modern  accomplishments,  so  modernly  indispen- 
sable, of  playing  the  piano  and  singing.  But  after 
all  their  studying,  resolving,  reciting,  thrumming, 
and  'unparalleled  advantages,'  what  do  they 
know  ?  That  is  the  question,  and  one,  too,  that 
may  be  speedily  answered  :  They  know  remark- 
ably little.  '  But,'  says  some  one,  '  our  girls 
are  surely  bright,  quick,  and  do  study  j  while  with- 


EDUCATION    OP    WOMEN. 

out  doubt  our  professors,  preceptors,  and  lecturers 
are  all  that  they  are  represented  to  be !'  Cer- 
tainly our  girls  are  bright,  are  quick — but,  shall  I 
say  it,  that  is  about  all.  I  was  a  pupil  at  one  of 
the  first  female  colleges  in  the  country,  and 
being  observant,  I  had  tolerably  good  opportunities 
of  judging  of  the  training  received  there.  In  the 
first  place,  the  girls  rarely  studied,  they  generally 
1  knew '  their  lessons,  just  by  means  of  that  same 
brightness  and  quickness,  fond  father  and  mother, 
which  Julia,  and  Kate,  and  Melisse  are  so  over- 
flowing *  with.  The  lessons  were  practically 
6  learned '  and  said  off;  but  an  hour  after  the 
recitation,  I  know  that  nine-tenths  of  those  girls 
could  not  have  told  what  their  lesson  was  about — 
and  why  ?  Because  the  American  girl  is  terribly 
deficient  in  brain.  There  is  no  mistake  about  it, 
although  it  is  very  hard  to  say  it,  they  care  no 
more  for  knowledge  than  a  man  would  care  to 
wear  a  new-fashioned  bonnet.  In  proof  of  this, 
find  me  the  girl,  who,  on  leaving  college,  school, 
or  seminary,  thinks  her  education  incomplete,  or 
dreams  of  studying  at  home  by  herself.  There 
are  none,  or  almost  none.  '  Study,  indeed  !  Have 

I  not  just  graduated   at College  ?     Study  ! 

oh,  no,  I  am  going  to  enjoy  myself,  and  it's 
about  time,  I  should  think  !'  How  many  times 
I  have  listened  to  words  like  these.  Poor 
things,  little  do  they  know  (or,  I  may  add, 
care)  that  the  foundation  of  their  education  only 

I 


EDUCATION    OP    WOMEN. 

is  laid.  But,  it  is  said,  '  they  must  know  some- 
thing, to  pass  such  examinations  before  such 
learned  committees  !'  Let  me  initiate  you,  Mr. 
Editor,  into  the  mysteries  of  an  examination.  Six 
years  ago  I  was  a  pupil  at  the  college  I  mentioned 
before,  and  a  member  of  the  second  French  class. 
I  did  not  know  how  to  read  French  understand- 
in  gly,  I  could  not  compose  a  single  sentence 
grammatically,  but  I  had  a  correct  pronunciation. 
Examination  day  grew  nigh,  and  I  was  almost 
frightened  out  of  my  wits  by  being  informed  that 
I  was  to  speak  a  long  selection  in  French  before 
the  august  committee.  I  studied  the  allotted 
piece,  however,  and  recited  it  womanfully,  on  the 
appointed  day,  amid  the  applause  of  delighted 
spectators.  I  received  the  first  honor  of  my  class, 
and  was  spoken  of  as  wonderfully  proficient  in  the 
Gallic  tongue.  Thus  were  the  audience  duped,  the 
judges  duped,  and,  I  may  add,  that  I  was  almost 
duped  myself.  This  is  the  way  in  which  most  of 
our  examinations  were  prepared  for ;  even  the  com- 
positions read  and  lauded  on  these  interesting 
occasions  were  not  unfrequently  verbatim  copies 
of  essays  clipped  from  unfamiliar  works  recom- 
mended by  one  of  our  teachers  as  containing 
1  useful  ideas  on  the  subject  you  are  about  to 
undertake,  my  dear.'  Oh !  it  disgusts  me  com- 
pletely when  I  remember  the  paltry  tricks  we 
were  encouraged  in,  and  that  were  suggested  to 
us  there.  If,  as  children,  we  went  to  school  to 


EDUCATION    OF    WOMEN. 

be  instructed  in  the  art  of  deceiving,  what  wonder 
that  we  are  adepts  in  it  now  ?  M.  F.  A." 

How  poorly  qualified  is  a  young  woman  who  has 
had  only  such  a  training  as  this,  to  enter  upon  the 
duties  of  married  life.  Her  knowledge  on  any 
subject  is  the  merest  smattering ;  she  has  n<x 
definite  or  clear  ideas  of  the  structure  and  func- 
tions of  the  body  which  she  tries  to  adorn  with 
gay  and  fashionable  clothing ;  the  sacred  myste- 
ries of  motherhood,  and  the  life  and  welfare  of 
the  little  one  she  maybe  called  to .  cherish,  are 
things  of  which  she  is  profoundly  ignorant; 
intellectually  she  is  entirely  unfit  to  be  a  help- 
meet for  her  husband ;  she  knows  nothing  of  busi- 
ness matters,  nothing  of  the  public  affairs  in  which 
he,  as  a  citizen,  is  interested.  She  can  not  read 
any  thing  except  the  most  sensational  and  vapid 
of  modern  novels,  or  a  periodical  literature 
equally  trashy,  "all  sober  reading  is  so  horrid 
dull,"  and  "  sober  reading "  includes  every  thing, 
except  fiction  and  fashions.  Her  moral  culture 
is  equally  imperfect.  She  may  go  to  church,  may 
possibly  have  a  class  in  the  Sunday  school,  but 
if  so,  the  class  is  to  be  pitied  ;  for,  having  no  re- 
ligious ideas,  no  comprehension  of  religious  truth, 
she  can,  of  course,  communicate  no  knowledge  to 
her  pupils,  of  the  great  moral  principles  which 
underlie  our  earthly  life,  of  her  duty  to  her  hus- 
band, to  her  neighbor,  to  community,  to  God,  she 

5* 


12Q  EDUCATION    OF    WOMEN. 

has  no  definite  idea ;  if  she  acts  rightly  and  gen- 
erously, it  is  from  the  instincts  of  her  early  train- 
ing; if  she  errs  in  any  or  all  her  duties,  she  is 
really  as  much  to  be  pitied  as  blamed. 

But  suppose  that  she  fails  to  marry,  and  that 
some  change  in  the  circumstances  of  her  family 
.render  it  desirable  that  she  should  do  something 
for  her  own  support.  What  shall  she  do  ?  She 
can  not  teach ;  she  has  no  definite  or  thorough 
knowledge  on  any  subject  which  is  ordinarily 
taught;  she  has  not  even  learned  how  to  study, 
much  less  ,to  impart  knowledge  to  others ;  even 
the  music,  on  which  so  large  a  portion  of  her 
school  years  has  been  spent,  is  utterly  distaste- 
ful to  her,  and  she  has  never  acquired  that  knowl- 
edge of  its  principles,  which  would  enable  her  to 
teach  others.  A  wealthy  New  York  merchant, 
with  three  grown  daughters,  and  who  had  recently 
married  a  second  wife,  young  and  fashionably  edu- 
cated, said  to  the  writer  :  "  I  don't  know  how  it 
is  ;  I  am  passionately  fond  of  music ;  I  have  a 
superb  Chickering  grand  piano  in  my  house,  and 
my  wife  and  daughters  have  had.  for  years,  the 
best  musical  instruction  in  New  York ;  and  yet  I 
can  never  hear  a  single  tune  at  home ;  my  piano 
is  locked  from  one  month's  end  to  another,  and 
not  one  of  them  will  touch  it ;  they  all  say  they 
had  enough  of  that  at  school."  This  was  per- 
haps an  extreme  case — one  where  the  parties  had 
no  natural  fondness  for  music ;  where  the  natural 


EDUCATION    OP    WOMEN. 

taste  exists,  it  would  be  strange  if  years  of  prac- 
tice did  not  enable  a  young  woman  to  play  a  few 
tunes  passably  well ;  but  it  is  very  seldom  the 
case  that  one  of  these  graduates  of  a  fashionable 
school  knows  enough  of  music  to  become,  what- 
ever the  necessity,  a  successful  teacher. 

Shall  this  unwedded  girl  attempt  to  acquire 
the  knowledge  of  medicine  requisite  to  become  a 
physician.  She  must  go  back  then  to  the  first 
elements  of  education,  and  learn  how  to  study ;  for 
the  study  of  medicine  requires  thought,  memory, 
comparison,  analysis,  synthetic  power,  mathe- 
matical skill,  logical  reasoning,  and  a  capacity  for 
sound  deduction.  In  all  these  her  training  has 
been  worse  than  useless  ;  it  must  all  be  unlearned. 
Shall  she  seek  a  position  as  a  government  clerk,  a 
book-keeper,  an  accountant,  a  cashier  in  a  store, 
or  manufactory  ?  Could  she  be  more  incompetent 
than  she  is  for  either  ?  If  her  penmanship  is  not 
utterly  ruined  by  that  abomination,  the  "  fashiona- 
ble handwriting  for  ladies,"  she  might  pass  muster 
on  the  chirography ;  but  the  spelling — how  seldom 
is  the  fashionably-educated  woman  accomplished 
in  that !  And  the  accounts — how  is  she  who  can 
scarcely  reckon  correctly  the  change  she  receives  in 
a  shopping  excursion,  to  be  expected  to  possess  any 
ability  for  the  intricacies  of  book-keeping  ?  She 
is  driven,  perforce,  to  take  a  place  as  saleswoman, 
or  to  wear  out  her  life  in  the  drudgery  of  the 
needle.  There  is  hardly  any  evil  of  our  national 


122  EDUCATION    OF    WOMEN. 

life  which  so  imperatively  demands  reform 
as  this. 

This  so-called  fashionable  education  is  ruining 
the  health  and  the  intellects,  and  greatly  impair- 
ing the  moral  character  of  thousands  of  our  young 
women-,  and  it  should  be  abolished  forthwith. 
Something  might  be  accomplished  by  making  the 
course  one  of  six  years  instead  of  four,  requiring 
a  rigid  examination  and  a  considerable  range  of 
attainments  for  admission,  and  then  diminishing 
the  number  of  studies  by  at  least  one-half.  With 
these  changes,  and  careful  thorough  teaching,  it 
might  be  possible  for  a  young  girl  to  go  through 
a  course  of  study,  and  graduate  with  some  knowl- 
edge of  the  subjects  of  her  study,  some  fond- 
ness for  intellectual  pursuits,  and  some  capacity 
to  teach  others. 

But  the  best  and  most  effective  system  of  female 
education  is  that  which  trains  the  two  sexes  to- 
gether, and  while  inspiring  a  moderate  emulation, 
develops  the  intellectual  and  moral  faculties  more 
perfectly  and  harmoniously  than  it  can  be  other- 
wise accomplished.  Still,  the  vested  interests  in 
boarding-schools,  female  seminaries,  and  female 
colleges  are  so  vast,  that  we  despair  of  seeing 
them  relinquished,  or  so  thoroughly  reformed  as 
they  should  be,  in  our  generation.  Much  could  be 
done,  indeed,  by  women  in  this  matter,  if  they 
would  give  their  attention  to  it ;  for  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  principals  and  proprietors  of  these 


EDUCATION    OF   WOMEN. 

finishing  schools  are  women.  Not  until  this  re- 
form is  completed,  can  woman  ever  hope  to  take 
the  positions  to  which  she  aspires  ;  for  not  until 
then  will  she  be  so  educated  as  to  fill  them  suc- 
cessfully.* 

*See  APPENDIX  A. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

IN  treating  of  the  employments  of  women,  we 
necessarily  give  the  first  place  to  that  which  is 
her  normal  position — the  charge  of  the  house- 
hold, and  especially  her  calling  as  wife  and 
mother.  By  far  the  larger  part  of  the  women  of 
any  generation  hold  one  or  both  these  relations 
to  man. 

We  are  not  disposed  to  say,  as  some  have  done, 
that  this  is  the  only  fitting  occupation  for  wo- 
man ;  or,  in  the  words  of  the  old  monkish  cate- 
chism of  the  Middle  Ages,  in  answer  to  the  ques- 
tion, "  What  is  the  dutie  of  woman  ?"  "  Wo- 
man's whole  dutie  is  to  spinne,  to  sew,  to  say  her 
aves  and  paters,  and  to  love  her  husband."  Nor, 
on  the  other  hand,  would  we  scoff  at  this,  as 
menial  labor,  unfit  for  women  of  culture. 

We  have  said,  in  a  former  chapter,  that  in 
the  woman  the  affections  predominate.  Woman 
needs  something  to  love  and  cherish,  something 
which  shall  stir  the  fountains  of  her  heart,  and 
waken  those  emotions  which  elevate  her  above 
common  humanity.  When  a  pure-minded,  intel- 
ligent, loving  woman  is  united,  not  only  by  the 
marriage  tie,  but  by  the  bonds  of  a  true  affection, 


EMPLOYMENTS    OF    WOMEN. 

to  a  man  every  way  worthy  of  her,  one  who  can 
sympathize  fully  with  her,  and  whose  mental  and 
moral  traits  form  the  just  complement  of  hers, 
she  enters  upon  a  relation  which  is  higher  and 
nobler  than  any  other  in  this  life ;  and  when 
such  a  woman  presses  her  first-born  to  her  bosom, 
the  life  of  her  life,  the  young  immortal  given  to 
her,  to  educate  and  rear  for  usefulness  and  activi- 
ty here,  and  for  glory  hereafter,  she  has  tasted  of 
as  much  joy  as  often  falls  to  the  lot  of  mortals. 

The  vocation  of  the  wife  and  mother — the 
mistress  of  a  household — is  one  which,  for  the 
proper  performance  of  its  duties,  requires  the 
highest  culture,  and  the  best  development  of  the 
body,  mind,  and  soul.  Of  the  body,  since  activity, 
strength,  skill,  and  elasticity  of  constitution  are 
required ;  no  tight-laced,  fashion-distorted,  pale, 
puny  daughter  of  Eve  can  perform  the  duties  of 
a  good  wife,  much  less  those  of  a  mother,  success- 
fully ;  pain,  weariness,  and  nervous  disorder  will 
make  her  duties  burdens,  her  very  existence  a 
prolonged  agony.  Development  of  the  mind,  for 
she  is  to  be  the  companion,  the  associate,  the 
help-meet  of  her  husband  ;  wise  to  aid  and  counsel 
him ;  skillful  to  help  him  when  needful  in  his  du- 
ties ;  intelligent  to  manage  affairs,  when  his  ab- 
sence may  render  it  necessary.  Mental  develop- 
ment is  requisite  also,  in  the  early  training  of  the 
child ;  the  knowledge  of  what  is  best  for  its 
health  and  growth ;  knowledge  of  the  best  method 


126  EMPLOYMENTS    OF   WOMEN. 

of  unfolding  its  dawning  capacities  ;  knowledge  of 
the  way  of  restraining  its  too  ardent  thirst  for 
learning,  and  of  the  best  means  for  the  symmetri- 
cal expansion  of  its  intellect. 

The  highest  degree  of  moral  culture  is  also 
desirable,  to  insure  the  observance  of  those  rela- 
tions between  the  wedded  pair  which  shall  make 
their  union  fruitful  in  all  good  works  and  noble 
deeds ;  for  the  cultivation  of  those  Christian 
graces  and  amenities,  which  will  make  home  most 
like  heaven  in  its  serenity,  unselfishness,  and 
attractiveness  ;  and  desirable,  also,  that  the  mother 
may  implant  in  the  mind  of  her  child  those  seeds 
of  purity,  truthfulness,  conscientiousness,  justice, 
and  liberality,  which  shall  make  it  a  blessing  to 
its  parents  and  to  the  world. 

Such  homes  there  are,  such  wives,  and  such 
mothers ;  women  who  find  in  this  home-life  and 
its  duties  ample  employment  for  all  their  time, 
and  .the  rich  intellectual  gifts  with  which  God  has 
endowed  them ;  and  who  take  more  delight  in 
making  their  homes  happy,  in  aiding  their  com- 
panions in  the  performance  of  their  duties,  and  in 
rearing  their  children  for  lives  of  virtue,  intelli- 
gence, and  usefulness,  than  they  would  in  swaying 
listening  senates  by  their  eloquence,  winning  the 
applause  of  the  world  by  their  wit  and  wisdom, 
or  wielding  the  scepter  of  power  in  the  empire  of 
the  Csesars. 

And  if  there  comes,  as  in  God's  providence 


EMPLOYMENTS    OF   WOMEN. 

there  sometimes  does,  the  angel  of  death  to  these 
happy  homes,  and  takes  from  them  a  husband 
beloved,  or  removes  a  cherished  and  idolized 
child,  the  stroke,  bitter  as  it  is,  does  not  shut  out 
all  sunlight  from  that  dwelling,  does  not  consign 
that  wife  and  mother  to  hopeless  despair,  and  the 
helplessness  of  an  unavailing  and  indolent  grief. 
Bereaved  and  afflicted,  she  yet  finds  solace  in  the 
household  activities,  and  the  opportunities  for  a 
more  active  and  extended  benevolence. 

To  the  married  woman,  then,  who  understands 
her  duties,  and  has  the  will  and  ability  to  perform 
them,  there  is  no  occasion,  and  indeed,  no  opportu- 
nity, for  other  employments ;  she  can  only  engage 
in  other  pursuits  by  neglecting  some  of  her  home 
duties,  or  by  delegating  them  to  others  less  com- 
petent to  perform  them  well ;  for,  if  she  is  so 
situated  as  to  have  and  require  servants,  the 
superintendence  of  her  household,  the  care  and 
nurture  of  her  children,  if  she  is  a  mother,  the 
necessary  time  occupied  in  planning  for  her  own 
wardrobe  and  that  of  her  family,  and  the  claims 
of  society,  occupy  all  of  her  time  not  devoted  to 
moral  and  religious  duties. 

Even  Mr.  J.  Stuart  Mill,  the  ablest  and  most  radi- 
cal of  the  defenders  of  what  are  sometimes  called 
"  women's  rights,"  admits,  that  "  when  the  support 
of  the  family  depends  not  on  property,  but  on  earn- 
ings, the  common  arrangement  by  which  the  man 
earns  the  income,  and  the  wife  superintends  the 


EMPLOYMENTS    OP    "WOMEN. 

domestic  expenditure,  seems  to  him  in  general 
the  most  suitable  division  of  labor  between  the 
two  persons.  If,"  he  argues,  "  in  addition  to  the 
physical  suffering  of  bearing  children,  and  the 
whole  responsibility  of  their  care  and  education  in 
early  years,  the  wife  undertakes  the  careful  and 
economical  application  of  the  husband's  earnings 
to  the  general  comfort  of  the  family,  she  takes 
not  only  her  fair  share,  but  usually  the  larger 
share  of  the  bodily  and  mental  exertion  required 
by  their  joint  existence.  If  she  undertakes  any 
additional  portion,  it  seldom  relieves  her  fr6m 
this,  but  only  prevents  her  from  performing  it 
properly.  The  care  which  she  is  herself  disabled 
(by  other  employments)  from  taking  of  the 
children  and  of  the  household,  nobody  else  takes  ; 
those  of  the  children  who  do  not  die,  grow  up  as 
they  best  can,  and  the  management  of  the  house- 
hold is  likely  to  be  so  bad,  as,  even  in  point  of 
economy,  to  be  a  great  drawback  from  the  value 
of  the  wife's  earnings.  In  an  otherwise  just  state 
of  things,  it  is  not,  therefore,  I  think,  a  desirable 
custom,  that  the  wife  should  contribute  by  her 
labor  to  the  income  of  the  family."  Further  on, 
he  says  :  "  Like  a  man,  when  he  chooses  a  profes- 
sion, so,  when  a  woman  marries,  it  may  in  general 
be  understood  that  she  makes  choice  of  the 
management  of  a  household  and  the  bringing  up 
of  a  family,  as  the  first  call  upon  her  exertions, 
during  as  many  years  of  her  life  as  may  be 


EMPLOYMENTS    OF   WOMEN. 

required  for  the  purpose ;  and  that  she  renounces 
not  all  other  objects  and  occupations,  but  all 
which  are  not  consistent  with  the  requirements  of 
this.  The  actual  exercise,  in  a  habitual  or 
systematic  manner,  of  outdoor  occupations,  or 
such  as  can  not  be  carried  on  at  home,  would  by 
this  principle  be  practically  interdicted  to  the 
greater  number  of  married  women." 

There  are  cases,  as  we  all  know,  where,  from 
the  indolence,  intemperance,  or  inefficiency  of  the 
husband,  and  the  straitened  circumstances  of  the 
family,  the  wife  and  mother  feels  compelled  to 
resort  to  some  employment,  which  will  give  her 
the  means  of  supporting  her  family.  She  is  thus 
placed  in  worse  circumstances  than  the  widow, 
for  she  has  usually  the  worthless  husband  also  to 
feed  and  support. 

It  is  obvious  that  under  these  circumstances, 
and  they  are  such  as  should  call  forth  our  pity 
and  sympathy,  the  labor  of  the  woman  must  usu- 
ally be  fragmentary,  for  she  can  seldom  leave  her 
family  for  many  hours  at  a  time.  This  seriously 
complicates  the  question  of  employment,  reducing 
it  to  those  classes  of  occupations  which  can  be  car- 
ried on  at  home,  with  frequent  interruptions,  or 
in  brief  and  irregular  absences  from  home.  If  only 
capable  of  physical  labor,  she  may  take  in  wash- 
ing, may  go  out  at  times  as  a  charwoman,  may 
cultivate  or  gather  small  fruits,  or  may  sew,  knit, 
or  drive  a  sewing-machine  j  if  she  is  educated, 


EMPLOYMENTS    OF   WOMEN. 

she  may  teach  a  small  school  at  home,  or  perhaps 
take  a  place  as  assistant  teacher  in  some  public 
school,  or  she  may  teach  music,  or  drawing,  or 
French,  or  German,  if  she  can  obtain  pupils,  or 
manage  a  small  store.  This  comprises  about  the 
entire  list  of  occupations  which  are  within  »her 
reach,  and  all  are  precarious  and  often  inadequate 
for  her  purpose,  while  many  of  them  involve  so 
great  a  neglect  of  her  children,  if  she  has  any,  as 
to  be  perilous  to  their  future.  I  do  not  include  in 
this  catalogue  literary  labor,  because,  although  a 
few  married  women  with  families  do  succeed  in  ifc, 
the  number  is  very  small;  the  payments  usually 
so  precarious  and  so  long  delayed,  that  it  can  not 
be  considered  as  in  any  respect  a  dependence. 
Yet,  bad  as  this  state  of  affairs  is,  it  is  not  very 
much  worse  than  that  of  the  man,  who  is  from 
any  cause,  such  as  the  care  of  a  helpless  family, 
illness,  or  lack  of  continuous  employment,  compel- 
led to  devote  only  a  fragmentary  part  of  his  time 
to  bread-winning  labor.  In  either  case,  the  prob- 
ability of  obtaining  an  adequate  livelihood  is  not 
very  great,  and  both  are  just  objects  of  the  assist- 
ance of  those  who  are  blessed  with  a  larger  share  of 
this  world's  goods,  though  that  assistance  should 
be  rendered  in  such  a  way  as  not  to  impair  their 
self-respect  or  independence.  Additional  com- 
pensation for  labor,  an  increase  of  patronage, 
obtained  by  personal  effort,  supplementary  wages, 
an  addition  to  supplies  of  fuel  or  winter  stores, 


EMPLOYMENTS  OF  WOMEN.  13$ 

an  unexpected  credit  of  a  given  amount  at  a 
store,  or  other  ways  skillfully  managed,  of  doing 
good  by  stealth,  will  often  save  such  a  wife 
and  mother  from  giving  up  in  despair,  and 
infuse  new  life  and  energy  into  her  desperate 
and  unequal  struggle  for  the  support  for  her  fam- 
ily. No  form  of  charity  is  more  productive  of 
good  than  this. 


EMPLOYMENTS    OP   WOMEN. 

she  may  teach  a  small  school  at  home,  or  perhaps 
take  a  place  as  assistant  teacher  in  some  public 
school,  or  she  may  teach  music,  or  drawing,  or 
French,  or  German,  if  she  can  obtain  pupils,  or 
manage  a  small  store.     This  comprises  about  the 
entire  list  of  occupations  which  are  within  *  her 
reach,  and  all  are  precarious  and  often  inadequate 
for  her  purpose,  while  many  of  them  involve  so 
great  a  neglect  of  her  children,  if  she  has  any,  as 
to  be  perilous  to  their  future.    I  do  not  include  in 
this  catalogue  literary  labor,  because,  although  a 
few  married  women  with  families  do  succeed  in  it, 
the  number  is  very  small ;  the  payments  usually 
so  precarious  and  so  long  delayed,  that  it  can  not 
be  considered  as  in   any  respect   a   dependence. 
Yet,  bad  as  this  state  of  affairs  is,  it  is  not  very 
much  worse  than  that  of  the  man,  who  is  from 
any  cause,  such  as  the  care  of  a  helpless  family, 
illness,  or  lack  of  continuous  employment,  compel- 
led to  devote  only  a  fragmentary  part  of  his  time 
to  bread-winning  labor.     In  either  case,  the  prob- 
ability of  obtaining  an  adequate  livelihood  is  not 
very  great,  and  both  are  just  objects  of  the  assist- 
ance of  those  who  are  blessed  with  a  larger  share  of 
this  world's  goods,  though  that  assistance  should 
be  rendered  in  such  a  way  as  not  to  impair  their 
self-respect    or   independence.      Additional   com- 
pensation   for   labor,   an   increase   of   patronage, 
obtained  by  personal  effort,  supplementary  wages, 
an  addition  to  supplies  of  fuel  or  winter  stores, 


EMPLOYMENTS  OF  WOMEN.  ^33 

an  unexpected  credit  of  a  given  amount  at  a 
store,  or  other  ways  skillfully  managed,  of  doing 
good  by  stealth,  will  often  save  such  a  wife 
and  mother  from  giving  up  in  despair,  and 
infuse  new  life  and  energy  into  her  desperate 
and  unequal  struggle  for  the  support  for  her  fam- 
ily. No  form  of  charity  is  more  productive  of 
good  than  this. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

IN  a  perfectly  normal  condition  of  human  soci- 
ety, the  number  of  adult  men  and  women  should 
be  just  about  equal,  and  every  woman  in  ordinary 
health,  and  of  ordinary  physical  and  mental  capa- 
city, should  have  the  offer  of  marriage,  being,  of 
course,  perfectly  free  to  accept  or  reject  it,  as  she 
pleased.  In  such  a  state  of  things  the  number 
who  did  not  choose  to  marry  would  be  compara- 
tively small,  and  the  question  of  occupations  for 
them  of  no  great  importance. 

But,  human  society  is  never  in  a  perfectly 
normal  state ;  it  is  always  vibrating  from  a  condi- 
tion like  that  of  England,  where  there  are  nearly 
five  hundred  thousand  more  adult  women  than 
men,  to  one  like  that  of  California  a  dozen  years 
ago,  or  Montana  and  Idaho  now,  where  there  are 
five  or  ten  men  to  one  woman,  where  it  was  said, 
that  in  1850,  miners  came  from  the  mountains 
two  or  three  hundred  miles  to  the  Bay  of  San 
Francisco,  to  get  a  glimpse  of  a  woman's  face. 

In  the  majority  of  old  and  long  settled  countries 
and  states,  military  service,  the  vicissitudes  of 
travel  and  outdoor  occupations,  and  above  all, 
emigration,  have  a  constant  tendency  to  aggra- 


EMPLOYMENTS   OP  WOMEN. 

vate  the  disproportion  between  the  two  sexes. 
In  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  this  disproportion 
has  reached  a  point  which  is  startling ;  and  in 
most  of  the  Eastern  or  Atlantic  States  of  our 
own  Union,  it  is  large  enough  to  occasion  some 
anxiety.  In  Massachusetts,  it  is  stated  that  there 
are  seventy  thousand  more  women  than  men,  and 
in  most  of  the  New  England  States  the  proportion 
is  nearly  as  great.  In  the  Middle  States  it  is 
somewhat  less,  though  the  absolute  excess  is  large. 
In  the  Southern  States,  owing  to  the  great  loss 
of  men  in  the  recent  war,  the  disproportion  is 
more  marked  than  at  the  North. 

But  the  equality  or  inequality  in  the  numbers 
of  the  two  sexes  is  no  gauge  or  standard  of  the 
number  of  adult  married  women.  A  very  consid- 
erable proportion  of  the  men  in  any  community, 
from  one  cause  or  another,  do  not  seek  to  marry ; 
and  in  the  existing  and  constantly  increasing 
extravagance  of  young  women  in  dress,  especially 
in  our  cities  and  large  towns,  and  their  entire 
ignorance  of  household  duties,  may  be  found  a 
very  cogent  reason  why  this  class  is  multiplying 
rapidly. 

"  I  would  be  very  glad  to  marry  and  have  a 
home  of  my  own,"  is  a  very  common  remark  with 
young  men  who  have  the  making  of  good  hus- 
bands in  them,  "but  I  could  not  keep  house  and 
support  Grace  (or  Jennie,  or  Minnie,  as  the  case 
may  be)  as  she  is  in  the  habit  of  living  at  home, 


136  EMPLOYMENTS  OF  WOMEN. 

for  less  than  four  or  five  thousand  dollars  a  year, 
and  as  my  salary  (or  income)  is  but  fifteen  hun- 
dred or  two  thousand  dollars,  I  must  give  up  all 
thought  of  it." 

With  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  young 
women  of  our  cities  and  larger  towns,  the  idea  of 
marriage  is  one  of  romance  merely.  They  expect 
their  home,  if  they  keep  house,  or  their  suite  of 
rooms,  if  they  board,  to  be  of  palatial  elegance ; 
like  the  lilies,  they  toil  not  neither  do  they  spin, 
and  yet  in  the  costliness  and  gorgeousness  of  their 
apparel,  Solomon  in  all  his  glory  was  not  arrayed 
like  one  of  them.  The  idea  which  dominates  the 
mind  of  a  fashionable  young  married  woman  of 
the  present  day,  is  not  how  she  shall  be  a  help- 
meet to  her  husband,  managing  prudently,  and 
spending  judiciously  what  he  has  earned  by  severe 
toil ;  it  is  not  how  she  may  accomplish  the  most 
good  with  moderate  means,  or  so  order  her  house- 
hold as  that  there  shall  be  no  waste,  and  thus 
the  more  to  be  left  for  benevolence  or  thrift ;  it  is 
not  how  her  home  can  be  made  most  happy,  and 
her  husband,  as  he  comes  to  it,  worn  with  the 
fatigues  of  the  day's  duties,  find  solace  and  joy  in 
her  society  and  the  attractiveness  of  the  home 
circle ;  it  is  how  she  may  surpass  this  acquaint- 
ance, equal  that  one,  or  excite  the  envy  of  a  third, 
by  the  number,  the  splendor,  and  the  costliness  of 
her  dresses,  and  her  reckless  display  of  them,  in 
all  weathers,  and  under  all  circumstances.  Abroad 


EMPLOYMENTS    OP    WOMEN. 

she  is  the  bird  of  paradise,  glorious  in  her  beauty, 
and  the  observed  of  all  observers ;  at  home,  the 
gay  plumage  is  laid  aside,  and  it  is  much  if  she 
does  not  greet  her  husband  in  soiled  and  disor- 
dered apparel. 

The  sums  expended  on  fashionable  dress  are 
beyond  the  belief  of  those  who  have  not  inves- 
tigated the  matter,  or  had  painful  personal  expe- 
rience of  them.  Even  among  a  class  not  wealthy, 
the  clerks,  tellers,  and  cashiers  of  our  banks, 
clerks  in  wholesale  warehouses,  men  just  fairly 
started  in  business,  or  having  a  moderately  pros- 
perous trade,  master  mechanics,  &c.,  the  expendi- 
ture of  the  women  of  the  family,  for  dress,  fre- 
quently ranges  from  one  thousand  to  ten  thousand 
dollars  each,  per  annum.  Among  the  wealthy 
still  higher  sums  are  expended.  "  My  girls  tell 
me  that  they  are  so  economical  that  they  feel  as 
if  they  were  almost  mean  in  their  dress,"  said  a 
wealthy  merchant,  "  and  yet  here  are  bills  for 
over  twelve  thousand  dollars,  for  the  outfit  of 
two  of  them  for  Newport,  this  summer.  I  wonder 
what  they  would  spend,  if  they  were  extrava- 
gant." 

This  reckless  expenditure,  in  many  instances, 
ruin  young  men  who  marry,  and  who  find  that 
they  can  not,  by  any  honest  means,  pay  such 
enormous  bills.  How  many  of  the  defalcations, 
bank  robberies,  stock  speculations,  gambling  losses, 
false  entries  in  books,  and  abstractions  of  money, 


138  EMPLOYMENTS    OP    WOMEN. 

within  the  past  five  years  in  all  our  large  cities, 
have  been  prompted  by  the  desire  on  the  part  of 
the  offenders  to  indulge  their  wives  in  dress, 
which  seemed  to  be  the  great  subject  and  end  of 
all  their  thoughts. 

But  the  evil  does  not  end  here.  This  fashion- 
able extravagance  having  become  the  rule,  the 
young  woman,  whose  father's  purse  is  strained  to 
the  utmost  to  provide  her  with  the  luxuries  which 
she  insists  are  essential,  and  who  looks  forward 
to  marriage  as  her  probable  destiny,  has  already 
fixed  it  in  her  own  mind  that  she  must  have  all, 
and  much  more  than  all,  the  luxuries  she  now 
has,  in  her  married  life.  If  she  is  cool  and  cal- 
culating, she  resolves  to  marry  no  man  whose 
income  is  not  large  enough  to  admit  of  her 
extravagance,  and  she  becomes  a  fortune-hunter ; 
if  she  is  impulsive  and  romantic,  she  rushes  on  her 
fate  without  misgivings,  encourages  her  somewhat 
timid  admirer  to  propose,  and  they  marry,  only  to 
find  that  ruin  is  before  them.  Where,  as  is  the 
case  in  instances  unfortunately  too  rare,  real  affec- 
tion and  an  undercurrent  of  good  sense  co-exist, 
the  wife  may  try  to  adapt  herself  to  her  husband's 
humble  circumstances;  but  even  in  these  cases, 
she  knows  so  little  of  real  economy  and  good 
management,  that  an  effort  at  the  most  rigid 
retrenchment  is  almost  sure  to  be  followed  by 
some  reckless  piece  of  extravagance,  which  more 
than  swallows  up  the  previous  savings. 


EMPLOYMENTS    OF    WOMEN. 

It  is  no  matter  for  wonder  that  young  men  of 
moderate  means  are  afraid  to  marry  under  such 
circumstances,  and  as  it  is  almost  impossible  for 
the  young  to  exist  without  social  enjoyment, 
they  become  attached  to  their  clubs,  their  drinking 
saloons,  and  not  unseldom  to  association  with  the 
impure,  and  the  acquisition  of  habits  which  drown 
the  soul  in  perdition. 

If  women  would  but  be  wise  in  these  matters  ! 
If  they  would  remember  that  not  all  the  adorning 
which  the  modiste  can  bestow,  will  impart  beauty 
to  those  who  do  not  possess  it,  and  that  to  the 
beautiful  and  attractive,  a  plain  and  simple  dress 
is  infinitely  more  becoming  than  the  most  mag- 
nificent silks  and  laces,  the  shawls  of  India  and 
Cashmere,  and  the  most  brilliant  diamonds  and 
gems  which  ever  flashed  from  crown  or  coronet 
—then  might  there  be  hundreds  of  happy  homes 
and  hearts,  where  now  there  is  sorrow,  disgrace, 
and  ruin,  either  present  or  impending. 

We  have  thus  accounted  for  a  portion  of  the 
yearly  increasing  class  of  the  unmarried  ;  of  the 
great  mass  yet  remaining,  some  (we  are  speaking 
now  of  women),  from  one  cause  or  another,  do 
not  desire  to  marry ;  some  do  not  fancy  the  offers 
they  receive,  and  prefer  a  single  life  to  one  of 
possible  unhappiness;  some,  from  their  health, 
from  hereditary  tendency  to  disease,  from  their 
attachment  to  infirm  parents,  or,  (rarely,  we 
think)  from  lack  of  personal  attractions,  or 


142  EMPLOYMENTS    OF    WOMEN. 

infirmities  of  temper,  are  not  sought  in  marriage. 
Another  very  considerable  class  of  single  women 
are  those  who  are  widowed. 

There  are  no  statistics  available  to  show,  with 
any  approach  to  accuracy,  what  portions  of  these 
are  dependent  upon  their  own  exertions  for  a 
support,  and  hence  require  an  occupation  or 
employment. 

Two  large  classes  of  working  women  first 
demand  our  attention ;  domestic  servants,  and 
the  female  employes  in  the  great  manufacturing 
establishments,  cotton  and  woolen  factories,  hoop- 
skirt  factories,  shirt  and  collar  factories,  laundries, 
ready-made  clothing  establishments,  book-binder- 
ies, power  presses,  &c.,  &c. 

In  both  classes,  there  are  more  or  less  married 
women,  but  generally  those  living  apart  from  their 
husbands,  and  so,  for  practical  purposes,  to  be 
reckoned  as  single  women.  Domestic  service  has 

<j 

come,  of  late  years,  to  be  almost  exclusively 
occupied  by  women  of  foreign  birth  or  foreign 
parentage.  It  is  very  rare  in  our  cities,  and  is 
getting  to  be  so  in  the  country,  to  find  a  female 
domestic  (excepting  the  large  class  of  colored 
servants  of  whom  we  shall  speak  by  and  by) 
who  is  not  either  of  Irish,  German,  English, 
Scotch,  French,  Swedish,  Norwegian,  Italian,  or 
Spanish  birth  or  parentage,  and  generally  in 
about  the  order,  as  to  numbers,  which  we  have 
stated.  There  has  been  in  this  respect  a  gradual 


EMPLOYMENTS    OP    WOMEN.  143 

but  very  complete  change  within  the  past  thirty 
years.  While  we  would  give  all  due  credit  to 
the  enterprise  of  these  women  of  foreign  birth,  in 
thus  monopolizing  one  of  the  most  important 
departments  of  feminine  labor,  we  can  not  but 
regret  that  they  have  been  able  to  do  so.  Our 
families  are  not  so  well  served,  a  very  large  pro- 
portion of  those  seeking  situations  being  new 
comers,  unfamiliar  with  our  language,  habits,  and 
customs,  and  having  but  limited  and  very  imper- 
fect notions  of  cleanliness  and  good  order,  and 
generally  unskilled  in  even  the  rudiments  of  cook- 
ing, or  the  laundress'  art.  With  a  pride,  which 
however  we  may  lament  it,  we  can  not  regard  as 
wholly  unjustifiable,  the  class  of  American  girls, 
daughters  of  parents  in  humble  circumstances, 
whose  mothers  and  aunts,  thirty  years  ago,  would 
have  willingly  accepted  situations  in  good  fami- 
lies, shrink  from  this  service,  now  that  these  ignor- 
ant foreign  women  have  crowded  the  intelligence 
offices,  because  they  feel  that  it  would  be  a  dis- 
grace and  dishonor  to  be  associated  with  them. 
We  can  hardly  wonder  at  this  ;  for  the  foreigners 
are,  with  some  exceptions  certainly,  ignorant,  rude, 
bigoted,  and  fanatical,  not  always  cleanly,  and 
often  dishonest;  and  to  be  classed  with  them 
would  be,  to  some  extent,  unfortunate.  Yet,  in 
relinquishing  this  calling  wholly  to  them,  our 
girls  of  American  birth  have  shut  themselves  out 
of  an  employment  which,  with  all  that  there  is 


144  EMPLOYMENTS    OF    WOMEN. 

disagreeable  about  it,  is  greatly  preferable,  in  its 
compensation,  its  healthfullness,  and  its  social  con- 
sideration, to  the  drudgery  of  the  needle,  or  the 
confinement  and  often  injurious  associations  of 
the  manufactories. 

If  women  of  good  sense  and  practical  skill  in 
household  matters,  women  of  good  character  and 
intelligence,  would  oftener  undertake  these  posi- 
tions, they  might  secure  to  themselves  kind 
friends  in  their  employers,  a  higher  and  more 
confidential  relation  between  mistress  and  ser- 
vant, and  a  compensation  which  would  be  much 
higher  than  that  which  the  majority  of  teachers, 
needlewomen,  saleswomen,  &c.,  receive. 

The  labor  in  this  employment  is  not,  on  the 
average,  so  severe  as  that  in  the  manufactories ;  it 
is  much  less,  and  less  injurious  to  health,  than 
needlework,  or  the  driving  of  a  sewing-machine. 
It  is  service,  and  implies  obedience  to  a  mistress ; 
but  who  among  those,  men  or  women,  who  are  com- 
pelled to  work  for  a  livelihood  (we  should  rather 
say,  perhaps,  are  privileged  to  work),  has  not  his 
or  her  employer  ?  Who  is  not  in  the  service  of 
some  one  ?  And  whether  this  master  or  mistress 
be  the  head  of  a  household,  an  officer  of  the  State 
or  nation,  the  proprietor  of  a  great  manufactory,  a 
merchant,  a  judge,  or  a  bishop,  a  congregation,  or 
the  great  public,  the  service  is  as  often  wearing 
and  irksome  in  the  higher,  as  in  the  lower  realms 
of  service.  Another  objection  urged  by  Aineri- 


EMPLOYMENTS    OF    WOMEN. 

can  girls  occasionally,  has,  we  are  inclined  to 
believe,  more  weight  with  them  than  all  the  rest. 
It  is  that  they  do  not  like  to  be  subject  to  other 
women,  and,  above  all,  to  their  own  country- 
women. We  can  easily  see  the  force  of  this 
objection.  Women  are,  as  a  rule,  more  exacting 
with  their  servants  than  men,  and  amid  this  preva- 
lence of  foreign  help,  the  fashionably  educated 
American  woman,  while  herself  ignorant  of  house- 
hold duties,  not  unfrequently  puts  on  a  haughty 
and  domineering  air,  which  none  will  submit  to, 
except  those  who  have  been  all  their  lives  meni- 
als, and  even  they  only  accept  the  situation  with 
a  view  to  revenging  themselves  for  the  insults 
they  receive,  by  defrauding  or  robbing  their 
employers. 

A  more  thoughtful,  just,  and  liberal  course  of 
conduct  toward  their  employes  would  secure  to 
mistresses  better  servants,  and  might  open  the 
way  for  the  return  of  some  of  those  invaluable 
women  to  service,  who  formerly  were  the  hum- 
ble and  attached  friends  of  the  families  with 
whom  they  lived.  Colored  servants  are  much 
more  numerous  at  the  South  than  in  the  Northern 
States.  In  the  latter,  indeed,  they  are  compara- 
tively rare.  In  some  instances  they  are  very  faith, 
ful,  trusty,  and  skillful,  but  many  of  them  have  the 
vices  bred  of  a  slave  life — heedlessness,  reckless- 
ness, a  lack  of  neatness,  untruthfulness,  and  petty 
dishonesty.  In  other  vices,  still  more  disreputa- 


146  EMPLOYMENTS    OP   WOMEN. 

ble,  there  is  very  little  difference  between  the 
colored  and  the  foreign  servants.  The  standard 
of  morality  is  lower  than  it  should  be  in  both. 

The  reign  of  European  female  servants  is  destin- 
ed, however,  to  be  short.  Already,  in  California, 
Chinese  men  have  taken  their  place  almost  en- 
tirely, and  the  same  change  is  destined  to  occur 
in  our  Eastern  cities  and  towns.  What  may  be  the 
result  of  this  revolution  remains  to  be  seen 

But  if  the  foreign  element  has  driven  our 
American  women  from  domestic  service,  it  has  also, 
to  a  considerable  extent,  done  the  same  thing  in 
relation  to  their  employment  in  manufactories. 
Thirty,  or  even  twenty-five  years  ago,  in  the  great 
cotton  and  woolen  mills  and  print-works  of  New 
England,  it  was  a  very  rare  thing  to  find  a  factory 
girl  of  foreign  birth  or  parentage.  Now,  the 
majority  are  Irish  and  Germans.  In  the  great 
manufactories  of  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Cincin- 
nati, and  other  cities,  a  large  (we  believe  the 
larger)  proportion  are  of  foreign  birth  or  parent- 
age. In  the  large  book-binderies,  as  yet,  Ameri- 
can girls  are  in  the  ascendency. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

TEACHING  is  an  employment  for  which  woman 
possesses  some  eminent  qualifications.  It  is  the 
duty  and  privilege  of  the  mother  to  give  her 
child  its  first  and  most  indelible  mental  and  moral 
training ;  and  so  important  is  this  early  maternal 
culture,  that  it  is  a  rule,  almost  without  exception, 
that  a  man's  character,  intellectually  and  morally, 
is  molded  by  his  mother's  influence.  For  the 
instruction  and  management  of  young  children, 
women  are  more  successful,  as  teachers,  than 
men  ;  they  have  more  tact,  more  skill  in  interest- 
ing and  amusing  them,  and  more  ability  to  lead 
them  on,  by  the  slow  and  short  steps  by  which  alone 
most  children  can  advance  in  their  knowledge  of 
science.  The  exercises  of  the  binder-marten,  or 
child's  garden-school,  were,  indeed,  first  invented 
by  a  man,  but  they  have  been  practiced  with 
greater  success  by  women  than  by  men.  The 
system  of  object-teaching  now  so  popular  in 
England  and  the  United  States,  has  had  its 
greatest  triumphs  in  the  hands  of  female  teachers. 

If,  as  the  most  eminent  educators  of  our  day 
assert,  the  crucial  test  of  the  ability  to  teach 
is  found  in  the  capacity  for  imparting  instruction 

6*  I 


148  WOMAN    AS    A    TEACHER. 

to  the  youngest,  the  weakest,  and  the  least  in- 
telligent, then  must  the  honor  of  being  the 
most  successful  of  teachers  be  given  to  women. 

In  our  public  schools  women  are  largely  in  ex- 
cess of  men,  as  teachers,  having  charge  in  the 
graded  schools,  of  the  primary,  and  a  part  of  the 
intermediate  departments,  and  being  assistants 
and  sometimes  principals  in  the  grammar  and 
high  schools.  Formerly,  when  young  men  taught 
school  in  winter,  to  eke  out  the  year's  wages,  or 
furnish  the  means  for  the  prosecution  of  academi- 
cal, collegiate,  or  professional  study ;  and  young 
girls  undertook  the  summer  district  school  to 
earn  some  extra  finery,  or  to  procure  the  means 
of  adding  to  the  outfit  for  the  housekeeping  that 
was  to  come  ere  long,  there  was  very  little  of  the 
professional  zeal  of  the  teacher  in  either,  and  the 
vocation  of  teaching  was  at  a  low  ebb.  The 
standard  of  qualifications  required  of  the  teacher 
was  low,  and  not  very  rigidly  enforced.  If  the 
young  man  was  not  conversant  with  arithmetic 
beyond  the  "  rule  of  three,"  or  was  at  fault  in 
grammar,  geography,  or  history,  yet  if  the  school 
was  small,  and  he  would  come  for  a.  low  price, 
the  examining  committee  generally  thought  it  was 
best  to  give  him  a  certificate.  And  if  the  young 
applicant  for  the  honors  of  schoolmistress  was 
slightly  faulty  in  her  spelling,  had  very  indefi- 
nite ideas  about  the  boundaries  of  the  States, 
and  could  not  (perhaps  from  timidity)  explain 


WOMAN    AS    A    TEACHER. 

why  one  should  be  carried  for  every  ten  in  ad- 
dition, yet  it  was  only  a  summer  school,  and 
she  would  doubtless  do  well  enough  with  the  few 
little  children  she  would  have,  and  so  she,  too, 
got  the  certificate.  These  matters  are  all  changed 
now.  What  with  normal  schools,  and  teachers' 
institutes,  associations,  drills,  and  periodicals,  that 
must  be  a  very  rural  district  which  has  not  a 
normal  teacher,  either  male  or  female,  or  at  least 
one  who  is  making  teaching  a  profession,  and 
who  has  taken  pains  to  qualify  him  or  herself  for 
the  now  honored  calling. 

As  a  consequence,  the  candidates  for  positions 
as  teachers  are  generally  qualified  to  undergo  the 
somewhat  searching  examinations  they  are  called 
to  pass,  and  are  seldom  deficient  in  their  technical 
knowledge  of  the  topics  they  are  to  teach,  at  least 
so  far  as  they  are  pursued  in  the  popular  text- 
books. Whether  they  possess  an  aptness  to  teach, 
and  the  knowledge  how  to  impart  instruction  on 
the  subjects  which  they  are  expected  to  under- 
stand, is  another  question.  The  ability  of  female 
teachers  to  enforce  discipline  successfully,  is  also 
somewhat  in  doubt. 

From  an  opportunity  of  observation  extended 
over  many  years,  we  are  inclined  to  the  belief 
that,  on  both  points,  women  on  the  average  suc- 
ceed quite  as  well  as  men,  and  in  maintaining 
order  and  discipline,  usually  better  than  men. 
The  course  pursued  in  our  normal  schools  is  very 


150  WOMAN    AS    A    TEACHER. 

well  calculated  to  impart  skill  in  teaching,  where 
the  natural  faculty  of  teaching  exists.  As  to 
government,  a  young  woman  of  tact  -and  spirit 
controls  her  pupils  quite  as  much  by  her  womanly 
dignity  and  her  personal  magnetism,  as  by  any 
direct  exercise  of  authority.  She  rules  the  tur- 
bulent boys  in  her  school  very  much  as  the 
wisest  and  shrewdest  of  her  sex  rule  men  outside, 
by  seeming  not  to  do  it.  Even  the  clownish, 
overgrown  boy  feels  ashamed  to  do  any  thing  to 
vex  the  schoolmistress.  She  is  such  a  nice  little 
lady,  and  he  who  would  be  constantly  plotting 
mischief  against  a  schoolmaster,  because  he  was 
"  a  man  of  his  size,"  becomes  mild  and  gentle, 
considerate  and  well-behaved,  toward  a  little  wo- 
man, whom  he  could  take  up  with  one  hand  and 
carry  out  of  the  schoolroom,  simply  because  she 
is  a  little  woman,  whose  gentle  and  lady-like  man- 
ners have  fascinated  him.  It  is  the  old  story  of 
Una  and  the  lion  over  again. 

In  the  female  seminaries,  French  colleges,  and 
finishing  schools,  the  quality  of  female  te'aching 
is,  we  are  inclined  to  believe,  considerably  lower 
than  in  the  higher  grades  of  public  schools.  Gen- 
erally, music  and  French  are  taught  by  men, 
though  sometimes  a  French  lady  is  employed  for 
modern  languages  ;  but  very  much  of  the  teaching 
in  other  studies  is  of  that  careless,  superficial, 
slipshod  sort,  which  does  no  real  credit  either  to 
instructor  or  pupil.  The  ^>etty  deceptions  and 


WOMAN    AS    A    TEACHER. 

subterfuges  practiced  in  many  of  these  institutions, 
to  give  the  parents  and  guardians  of  the  pupils  the 
impressidR^that  the  course  of  study  is  very  ex- 
tensive and  thorough,  and  that  their  children  are 
paragons  of  learning,  would  disgust  any  really 
honest  teacher. 

It  is  too  late  in  the  day  to  raise  the  question 
of  the  capacity  of  woman  for  becoming  a  teacher 
in  the  higher  studies  of  the  college  or  university. 
In  all  the  Christian  ages,  there  have  been  a  few 
women,  eminent  alike  for  the  soundness  of  their 
judgment,  the  clearness  of  their  perceptions,  and 
the  extent  of  their  erudition,  who  have,  either 
voluntarily  or  involuntarily,  become  the  teachers 
of  their  time.  In  the  earlier  centuries  of  the 
Christian  era,  they  taught  in  public,  and  their 
lectures  or  expositions  were  largely  attended.  In 
the  Middle  Ages,  we  find  them  professors  in  the 
universities  of  Italy  and  France,  and  attracting 
great  numbers  of  students  to  their  teachings.  In 
more  modern  times,  they  have  kept  up  the  repu- 
tation of  their  sex,  if  not  in  direct  instruction,  at 
least  by  their  books,  which  were  in  many  cases 
models  both  in  their  style  and  in  the  thorough- 
ness with  which  they  handled  abstruse  topics.  In 
our  own  day,  there  have  been  a  small  number  of 
women  whose  attainments  in  the  highest  walks  of 
science  have  been  fully  equal  to  those  of  the 
ablest  male  scholars  on  the  same  topics.  Mrs. 
Somerville,  though  now,  we  believe,  in  her  nine- 


152  WOMAN    AS    A    TEACHER. 

tieth  year,  has  demonstrated  the  vigor  of  her 
intellect  even  at  that  great  age,  by  the  careful 
revision  of  her  great  work  on  physical  geogra- 
phy, and  has  called  forth  from  Sir  R.  I.  Murchison, 
himself,  perhaps,  the  ablest  physicist  of  our  time, 
the  encomium,  as  truthful  as  it  is  remarkable,  that 
she  was  the  peer,  in  her  extensive  and  profound 
knowledge  of  physical  science,  of  any  living 
philosopher.  In  the  difficult  and  abstruse  science 
of  political  economy,  in  which  so  many  of  the 
finest  male  intellects  have  failed,  two  women, 
Miss  Harriet  Martineau  and  Mrs.  J.  S.  Mill,  have 
manifested  an  ability  second  to  no  writers  on  the 
subject  in  our  time.  In  astronomy,  Miss  Maria 
Mitchell  has  proved  as  successful  an  observer  and 
as  sagacious  a  discoverer  as  any  of  her  male  con- 
freres. In  profound  knowledge  of  the  great  prin- 
ciples of  law,  Miss  Hannah  Bonvier  was  in  no 
way  inferior  to  her  father,  one  of  the  great  jurists 
of  our  age.  The  late  Mrs.  Hill,  wife  of  Rev. 
Thomas  Hill,  D.  D.,  late  President  of  Harvard 
University,  died  at  the  age  of  thirty-one,  the 
victim  of  her  earnest  zeal  to  acquire  such  a 
knowledge  of  the  highest  mathematics  as  is 
attained  by  hardly  one  nian  in  a  generation.  We 
might  multiply,  almost  indefinitely,  the  number  of 
names  of  women  in  various  departments  of  science 
and  literature,  whose  attainments  justified  them 
in  becoming  public  instructors.  And  these  attain- 
ments have  been  made,  it  must  be  remembered. 


WOMAN    AS    A    TEACHEB.  153 

under  a  generally  faulty  and  superficial  system 
of  education.  Were  the  opportunities  for  a  thor- 
ough and  complete  education  of  women  as  ample 
as  those  of  men,  there  can  be  no  question  that 
the  number  of  highly  educated  women  would  be 
vastly  greater  than  it  now  is.  At  present  the 
number  qualified  to  fill  college  professorships  is 
small,  though  increasing.  The  education  required 
to  fill  such  positions  can  not  be  obtained  before 
the  age  of  eighteen,  especially  with  those  who 
have  marriage  in  immediate  prospect.  Neither 
science  nor  literature  allow  those  of  their  votaries, 
who  wish  to  attain  the  highest  honors,  to  give 
them  a  divided  homage.  Long  and  close  applica- 
tion is  necessary  to  qualify  the  accomplished 
teacher  for  her  work.  Yet  this  is  a  field  where 
prizes  await  those  who  are  qualified  to  receive 
them.  In  the  present  zeal  for  the  founding  of 
new  colleges,  there  is  a  demand  considerably 
beyond  the  supply  for  highly  educated  and  skillful 
teachers,  and  many  of  the  chairs  might  be  filled 
advantageously  by  women. 

In  all  the  branches  which  constitute  a  liberal 
education,  women  have  demonstrated  their  ability 
to  teach  successfully,  but  in  a  college  admitting 
pupils  of  both  sexes,  it  would  be  desirable  that 
the  female  professors  should  occupy  those  chairs 
which  did  not  require  the  exercise  of  great  phy- 
sical power.  Surveying,  the  practical  branches 
of  geometry,  fortification,  mining,  metallurgy, 


154  WOMAN    AS    A    TEACHER. 

chemistry,  and  especially  chemical  technology, 
would  not,  .on  these  grounds,  be  professorships 
which  women  would  desire  to  fill.  For  another 
reason,  viz.,  the  general  impatience  of  women 
with  the  slow  processes  of  logical  deduction,  logic, 
and  moral  and  intellectual  philosophy  in  their 
highest  development,  would  seldom  be  topics 
which  women  would  teach  with  success.  Usually, 
a  woman  may  be  trusted  (in  the  higher  walks  of 
education)  to  teach  any  science,  for  which,  from 
special  training,  she  feels  herself  competent. 

From  teaching,  as  an  employment,  the  transi- 
tion is  easy  and  natural  to  the  practice  of  what 
are  usually  called  the  learned  professions.  There 
are  not  wanting  examples  of  women  having  filled 
with  considerable  success  the  clerical  office.  One 
denomination  of  Christians,  the  Friends,  have 
had  for  two  hundred  years  and  more  their  women 
preachers,  some  of  them  of  great  eloquence.  These 
fair  preachers,  it  must  be  acknowledged,  have  not 
generally  lost,  to  any  appreciable  extent,  their 
womanly  modesty  and  delicacy  by  their  public 
exercises.  The  extreme  plainness,  simplicity,  and 
freedom  from  formality  in  the  religious  exercises 
of  the  Friends,  have  prevented  any  injurious 
results  from  these  utterances.  The  Moravians, 
too,  have  had  for  a  long  period  their  women 
preachers,  and,  we  believe,  in  one  or  two  instances, 
women  bishops.  Of  other  religious  denominations, 
the  Universalists,  in  this  country,  have  several 


WOMAN  AS  A  TEACHER. 

ordained  women  preachers  and  pastors ;  the  Uni- 
tarians have  five  or  six ;  and  the  Methodists,  two 
or  more.  There  are  also  some  among  the  minor 
denominations.  That  a  well  educated  and  deeply 
religious  woman  may  be  able  to  write  a  sermon 
as  systematic,  earnest,  pungent,  and  practical,  as 
most  clergymen,  and  could  perform  many  of  the 
pastoral  duties  which  fall  to  the  lot  of  clergymen, 
successfully,  can  not  be  denied,  yet  we  must  con- 
fess that  we  greatly  prefer  that  they  should  not 
occupy  the  pulpit.  There  is  something  contrary 
to  our  ideas  of  propriety  and  womanly  delicacy 
in  a  woman's  standing  up  before  a  great  congre- 
gation as  their  spiritual  leader  and  guide.  She 
may  be  competent  for  the  position,  intellectually 
and  morally,  but  the  office  of  the  preacher  and 
pastor  implies  the  power  of  government — bear- 
ing rule — a  thing  for  which  we  look  in  vain  in  the 
history  of  the  early  Church. 

We  do  not  lay  so  much  stress  as  some  do,  upon 
the  prohibitions  of  Paul :  "  I  suffer  not  a  woman 
to  teach  ;"  "  Let  the  woman  learn  in  silence  with 
all  subjection ;"  "  Let  your  women  keep  silence 
in  the  churches,  for  it  is  not  permitted  unto  them, 
to  speak;  but  they  are  commanded  to  be  under 
obedience,  as  also  saith  the  law ;"  "  For  it  is  a 
shame  for  women  to  speak  in  the  church,"  &c., 
&c.  These  prohibitions  were  to  some  extent 
partial,  intended  only  for  particular  churches, 
especially  for  that  in  the  corrupt  city  of  Corinth, 


156  WOMAN   AS  A   TEACHER 

where  the  general  gross  and  infamous  demoraliza- 
tion of  the  entire  community,  rendered  special 
restraints  necessary,  to  create  a  sense  of  modesty 
and  refinement  which  had  not  hitherto  existed. 
They  are  also  partly  modified  by  other  declara- 
tions of  the  apostle  in  the  same  and  other  epistles, 
which  show  conclusively  that  it  was  a  public 
teaching,  and  not  an  exhortation  or  testimony  to 
the  truth  to  which  he  objected.  We  have  our 
doubts  whether,  as  some  suppose,  allowance  should 
also  be  made  for  the  apostle's  natural  sternness 
and  decision  of  character,  and  the  influence  which 
his  single  life  and  homelessness  may  be  supposed 
to  have  exerted  upon  him,  as  modifying  in  a  de- 
gree the  tone  of  the  revelation,  so  far  as  he  de- 
clares it,  inspired  by  God.  Still,  viewing  the 
work  of  the  ministry,  as  it  unquestionably 
is,  as  one  form  of  exercise  of  the  governing 
power,  we  can  not  but  regard  the  entering 
upon  it  by  woman  as  a  thing  to  be  deplored.  If, 
as  sometimes  occurred  in  the  Jewish  common- 
wealth, God  calls  a  woman  to  be  a  spiritual 
leader  of  his  people,  we  believe  that  he  will  make 
her  call  manifest  by  such  visible  signs  that  she 
will  be  readily  and  heartily  received  by  the 
Church,  and  her  divine  mission  recognized.  Ex- 
ceptional cases  of  this  sort  may  possibly  arise — 
but  till  they  do,  we  can  not  help  believing  that 
the  public  religious  exercises  of  woman  should  be 
confined  to  exhortation,  or  bearing  her  testimony 


WOMAN  AS  A  TEACHER. 

to  the  truth  and  vital  power  of  the  religion  which 
she  professes. 

Of  public  speaking  of  a  secular  character  by 
women,  now  becoming  very  prevalent,  we  have 
only  to  say,  that  while  we  have  in  some  instances 
been  instructed,  and  in  others  amused,  by  these 
feminine  orations,  we  can  not  desire  any  consider- 
able increase  in  the  number  of  these  speakers. 
That  some  of  them  have  done  service  to  the 
causes  they  have  advocated,  that  some  both  write 
and  speak  eloquently,  is  true;  but  that  in  thus 
attempting  to  edify  or  amuse  the  public,  they 
almost  inevitably  divest  themselves  of  something 
of  that  maidenly  modesty  and  delicacy  which  are 
such  essential  charms  in  the  character  of  woman, 
is  also  true.  There  may  be  those  who  are  called 
to  this  work ;  if  so,  let  them  perform  it,  but  let 
every  woman  who  thinks  of  undertaking  it,  be 
sure  that  it  is  her  vocation. 


CHAPTER  X. 

As  TO  the  medical  profession,  there  seems  to  be 
no  serious  objection  against  its  being  undertaken 
by  women  who  are  properly  qualified  for  it.  For 
some  departments  of  medical  study  and  practice, 
such  as,  for  instance,  diseases  of  her  own  sex,  and 
of  children,  and  the  practice  of  obstetrics,  woman 
possesses  some  peculiar  qualifications  and  advan- 
tages. If  she  has  the  natural  abilities,  and  has 
acquired  the  previous  systematic  and  thorough 
mental  training  which  will  enable  her  to  become 
thoroughly  familiar  with  the  science  of  medicine  in 
all  its  relations,  there  is  no  reason  why  she  should 
not  be  eminently  successful  as  a  medical  practi- 
tioner. The  practice  of  medicine  requires,  how- 
ever, qualities  of  so  high  an  order— tact,  quick 
perception,  readiness  of  resource,  sound  judgment, 
comparison,  the  power  of  discrimination,  both 
of  the  symptoms  of  disease  and  the  nature 
and  application  of  remedies,  and  in  some  of  its 
departments,  such  complete  self-possession,  firm- 
ness, control  of  the  emotions  and  sympathies, 
patience  and  thorough  knowledge  of  the  human 
structure,  and  of  the  modifications  in  its  physio- 
logical action  affected  by  disease — that  even  its 


PROFESSIONAL  LIFE    OF   WOMAN. 

most  eminent  professors  often  feel  their  incompe- 
tency  for  its  practice. 

The  greatest  difficulty  which  women  have  to 
contend  with,  in  the  study  and  practice  of  this 
profession,  is,  that  their  early  training  has  been  so 
superficial  and  desultory  that  they  are  unfitted 
for  the  severe  study  and  close  application  requisite 
for  its  mastery,  and  are  hence  strongly  disposed  to 
take  up  with  some  of  the  forms  of  quackery,  which 
promise  them  results  which  can  really  be  attained 
only  by  careful  and  protracted  study  and  ade- 
quate knowledge  of  the  subject. 

There  are,  however,  a  considerable  number  of 
women,  now,  as  there  have  been  some  in  past 
generations,  who  have  distinguished  themselves 
by  their  high  attainments  in  medical  knowledge 
and  skill ;  such  women  as  the  Blackwell  sisters, 
and  others  whom  we  might  name,  who  have 
demonstrated  that  a  woman  can  attain,  in  some 
walks  of  the  profession,  an  eminence  equal  to  that 
of  the  most  distinguished  physicians  of  our  time. 

Great  physicians,  those  who  rank  very  high  in 
their  profession,  are  never  to  be  found  in  great 
numbers,  and  necessarily  their  number  must  be 
smaller  among  women  than  men,  since  fewer 
enter  on  a  course  of  medical  study,  and  many  of 
them  have  not  had  the  preliminary  training 
which  would  qualify  them  to  take  high  rank  in 
it ;  and  the  facilities  for  the  prosecution  of  medi- 
cal study  in  the  way  of  dissections,  museums, 


160         PROFESSIONAL  LIFE    OF   WOMEN. 

&c.,  for  women,  are  not  yet  equal  to  those  for 
men. 

Yet  there  is  a  very  considerable  sphere  of 
usefulness  opened  here  for  brave,  studious,  clear- 
headed women.  They  are  especially  adapted  to 
be  the  physicians  of  children ;  the  tact  and  skill, 
the  knowledge  how  to  manage  and  interest  a  child, 
which  seems  almost  intuitive  in  many  women,  is 
a  great  advantage,  as  every  physician  knows,  in 
their  treatment  of  the  little  ones.  , 

If  women  trusted  each  other  more  than  they 
do,  and  were  more  willing  to  believe  and  confide 
in  the  superior  knowledge  of  any  of  their  sex,  we 
should  hope  to  see  the  day  when  the  entire 
medical  treatment  of  women  and  young  children 
was  in  the  hands  of  highly  educated,  capable 
female  physicians,  as  those  best  qualified  for  it ; 
but  so  long  as  very  many  women  openly  avow 
their  preference  for  male  medical  attendants, 
irrespective  of  the  question  of  their  qualifications, 
it  seems  to  us  that  a  long  time  must  elapse  before 
women  will  become  very  generally  the  physicians 
of  their  sex. 

It  is  very  seldom  the  case,  we  think,  that 
women,  however  highly  qualified  they  may  be, 
desire  to  go  into  general  practice,  and  the  fact 
is  creditable  to  their  good  sense  and  sound  judg- 
ment. There  might  be  circumstances,  though  we 
can  hardly  conceive  of  them,  in  which  a  woman 
would  be  justified  in  undertaking  the  cases  of  a 


PROFESSIONAL  LIFE   OF   WOMAN. 

general  practice  ;  but  there  would  be  so  much 
that  was  distasteful  and  unpleasant  about  such  a 
practice,  that  we  should  apprehend  that  the  prin- 
cipal danger  would  be  that  of  her  abandoning  the 
profession  altogether,  in  utter  disgust.  There  is 
just  now  a  very  considerable  demand  for  women 
physicians  as  missionaries,  who  could  treat  their 
own  sex,  especially  in  Mohammedan  countries, 
where  no  male  physician  is  admitted  into  the 
harem  under  any  circumstances.  It  is  urged,  and 
with  great  truth,  that  in  addition  to  their  medical 
services,  they  might  become  propagandists  of 
Christianity  to  these  secluded  women,  and  thus 
benefit  both  soul  and  body. 

A  knowledge  of  medicine  also  qualifies  them 
the  better  for  the  position  of  a  skillful  and  highly 
trained  nurse  and  attendant  upon  the  sick,  which 
so  many  filled  with  such  signal  advantage  to  their 
patients,  during  the  late  war.  There  is  a  wide 
opening  in  this  direction  for  profitable  and  useful 
employment  for  women. 

We  have  alluded  already  to  the  prevalent 
reluctance  of  women  to  enter  upon  general  prac- 
tice, and  the  indication  which  it  furnished  that 
they  understood  well  what  was  their  true  position 
in  the  matter.  For  the  same  as  well  as  other 
reasons,  women  are  not  well  adapted  to  the  prac- 
tice of  surgery,  and  should  never  undertake  it. 
Their  more  delicate  nervous  organization,  their 
more  ready  sympathy,  and  their  instinctive  aver- 


164         PROFESSIONAL   LIFE  OF  WOMAN. 

sion  to  the  use  of  the  operating  knife,  even  where 
it  was  indispensable,  would  affect  alike  their 
diagnostic  power,  and  their  ability  to  operate ;  and 
the  woman  who  could  subdue  all  these  emotions, 
and  hold  herself  ready  to  pass  the  trying  ordeal 
of  performing  a  great  surgical  operation,  might  be 
brave,  heroic,  skillful,  if  you  will,  but  before  reach- 
ing this  point,  she  must  have  crucified  her  woman's 
heart,  and  have  become  that  undesirable  thing — a 
manlike  woman. 

For  the  reasons  given  in  another  chapter,  it 
would  be  unwise  for  a  married  woman,  the  mother 
of  a  family,  to  engage  in  the  practice  of  medicine, 
unless  in  the  rare  case  where  she  is  the  wife  of  a 
physician,  and  as  thoroughly  trained  in  her  pro- 
fession as  her  husband.  Even  in  such  a  case, 
there  would  be  much  to  annoy  her  and  impair  her 
efficiency  ;  her  household  duties  would  necessarily 
distract  her  thoughts,  and  her  children,  if  she  has 
any,  would  very  surely  be  neglected  ;  but  in  any 
other  case,  though  the  development  of  the  mater- 
nal instincts  would  not  be  without  its  advantages 
in  many  instances,  yet,  with  the  exception  already 
made,  the  practice  of  medicine  should  be  strictly 
confined,  so  far  as  women  are  concerned,  to  single 
women  or  widows. 

There  will  be,  as  any  female  physician  in  full 
practice  can  avouch,  full  as  many  annoyances  and 
disabilities  for  these,  as  they  will  care  to  meet. 
The  night's  rest  so  constantly  and  thoughtlessly 


PROFESSIONAL   LIFE   OF  WOMAN. 

disturbed,  the  midnight  rides  in  dark  nights  and 
over  rough  roads,  the  querulousness  and  peevish- 
ness of  hypochondriacs,  the  mad  antics  of  hys- 
terical patients,  the  deep  feeling  of  responsibility 
when  a  wife  and  mother,  the  cherished  idol  of 
her  husband's  heart,  is  passing  through  her  great 
agony,  or  lies  insensible  and  in  imminent  peril 
of  sudden  death ;  the  sense  of  the  powerlessness 
of  medicine,  when  the  beloved  child,  the  pet  of 
the  household,  is  passing  on,  by  slow  but  sure 
steps,  to  the  grave ;  the  uncertainty  whether,  in  a 
given  case  which  has  proved  fatal,  there  may  not 
have  been  some  medicine,  or  some  method  of 
treatment,  unknown  to  the  physician  herself,  yet 
within  the  bounds  of  human  knowledge,  which,  if 
resorted  to,  would  have  saved  this  precious  life. 

I  speak  not  of  any  financial  difficulties,  of  the 
unwillingness  which  every  physician  finds  among 
a  certain  portion  of  his  patrons  to  pay  for  services 
rendered;  of  that  class,  unhappily  too  numerous,  by 
whom,  on  the  recovery  of  the  patient,  "  death  and 
the  doctor  are  alike  forgotten,"  or  of  the  want  of 
conscientiousness  so  prevalent,  which,  unmindful  of 
the  benefits  rendered,  considers  the  physician's  bill 
the  last  one  to  be  paid,  if  paid  at  all.  Of  all  these 
troubles  the  woman  physician  will  have  her  full 
share,  and  owing  to  the  prevalence  of  the  idea  in 
the  loutish  minds  of  the  unintelligent,  that  women's 
work  should  not  receive  the  same  pay  as  men's,  she 
may  have  a  few  extra  worries  peculiar  to  herself. 


PROFESSIONAL    LIFE    OF  WOMAN. 

But  there  is  a  place  and  a  need  for  well-educat- 
ed female  physicians,  and  they  shall  have  from  us 
nothing  but  a  "  God  speed  them  in  their  profession, 
and  give  them  abundant  success  in  it." 

The  question  whether  woman  should  enter  the 
legal  profession  has  given  rise  to  much  animated 
discussion.  Some  of  the  most  advanced  defend- 
ers of  woman's  rights  contend  that  she  ought  to 
take  those  places  at  the  bar  and  on  the  bench, 
which  are  now  occupied  solely  by  men.  There 
are  several  serious  objections  to  this.  The  advo- 
cate who  addresses  a  jury,  or  a  bench  of  judges 
on  an  important  case,  not  only  requires  thorough 
preparation  of  all  the  law  points,  and  a  complete 
mastery  of  the  great  principles  on  which  his  argu- 
ment is  to  be  based,  but  he  must  be  an  adept  in 
the  difficult  and  often  unpleasant  art  of  cross- 
examination,  and  he  must  be  prepared  with  a 
retort — not  always  courteous — for  the  sophistries 
and  subterfuges  of  a,  perhaps,  not  over-scrupulous 
adversary.  If  he  is  addressing  a  jury,  he  must 
make  a  favorable  impression  on  them,  either  by  his 
real  dignity,  his  apparent  candor  and  conscien- 
tiousness, his  clear  and  transparent  logic,  or  his 
tact,  humor,  and  wit.  If  his  plea  is  made  before 
the  full  bench  of  judges,  he  must  present,  in  the 
strongest  light,  the  great  legal  principles  which 
underlie  his  case,  must  fortify  it  with  authorities, 
decisions,  and  precedents,  must  hedge  it  about 
with  logical  arguments,  and  in  the  whole,  there 


I 


PROFESSIONAL   LIFE    OF   WOMAN. 

must  be  no  extraneous  ornament,  no  diffuseness 
of  oratory,  no  ad  captandum  appeals,  or  he  loses 
his  case  inevitably. 

To  a  true  woman,  there  would  be  much  in  both 
of  these  branches  of  the  profession  which  would 
be  distasteful  and  unpleasant.  Granting  the 
ability,  which  may  exist  in  rare  instances  (though 
women  are  seldom  close  and  skillful  logicians,  or 
disposed  to  terse  and  condensed  argument),  there 
would  yet  be  many  of  the  necessary  incidents  of 
a  trial  scene  which  would  be  exceedingly  painful 
to  a  woman  of  sensitive  and  delicate  temperament, 
and  through  which  she  could  not  pass,  without 
detriment  to  that  refinement  and  delicacy  which 
should  ever  characterize  woman. 

To  her  presiding  on  the  bench  there  would  be 
objections  of  a  different  class.  Women  seldom 
make  good  presiding  officers,  partly  from  the 
fact  that  they  do  not  often  possess  that  thor- 
ough self-possession,  that  calmness  and  dignity 
of  manner,  and  that  thorough  knowledge  of  par- 
liamentary rules  and  usage,  which  alone  prevent 
confusion  and  discord  in  the  assembly,  and  morti- 
fication and  embarrassment  on  the  part  of  the 
presiding  officer.  The  parliamentary  rules  they 
might  acquire,  but  seldom  or  never  do,  and  even, 
with  the  knowledge  of  them,  the  other  difficulties 
would  be  serious.  The  judge  requires,  in  addition 
to  these  qualities,  that  judicial  faculty,  that  power 
of  discriminating  between  the  true  and  the  true- 


170        PROFESSIONAL    LIFE    OF    WOMAN. 

seeming,  of  sifting  evidence,  discovering  perjury, 
weighing  precedents  and  authorities,  and  divest- 
ing himself  of  preferences,  leanings,  and  prejudices, 
and  that  profound  knowledge  of  legal  principles, 
all  of  which  go  to  the  making  of  the  character  of 
the  just,  upright,  and  learned  judge,  and  render 
his  position  the  grandest  and  most  responsible  in 
the  community. 

In  some  of  these  qualities,  woman  is,  we 
may  believe,  deficient  from  the  structure  of  her 
mental  constitution ;  in  others,  her  deficiency  is 
one  which  might  possibly  be  remedied  by  long  and 
patient  culture  ;  but,  with  the  rarest  of  exceptions, 
the  function  of  the  judge  is  not  one  to  which  she 
would  do  well  to  aspire. 

There  are,  however,  other  departments  of  the 
legal  profession  which  woman  can  fill  as  well  as 
man,  and  some  of  them  among  the  most  lucrative. 
Conveyancing  and  its  kindred  branches  of  busi- 
ness appertaining  to  the  disposal  of  real  property, 
the  searching  of  titles,  the  preparation  of  pension 
and  bounty  papers,  the  drawing  of  deeds,  wills, 
contracts,  agreements  and  affidavits,  and  generally 
the  consulting  business  of  an  attorney's  office,  can 
be  done  as  well  by  a  woman  as  a  man,  if  the 
woman  will  but  give  her  whole  thought  and  mind 
to  it.  So,  too,  the  preparation  of  a  case  for  trial, 
the  preparing  the  brief,  the  hunting  up  and 
arranging  the  authorities  under  each  point,  are 
matters  within  the  scope  of  woman's  powers.  Our 


EMPLOYMENTS    OF    WOMEN.  173 

great  lawyers  usually  have  partners  or  confidential 
clerks  on  whom  these  duties  now  devolve,  and 
these  partners  or  clerks  never  open  their  mouths 
in  court. 

There  are  also  the  places  of  clerks  and  re- 
porters of  courts,  which  might  well  be  filled  by 
women. 

We  conclude,  then,  that  in  some  departments 
of  the  legal  profession  there  is  room  for  women, 
while  there  are  others  which  would  not  be  ap- 
propriate for  them,  and  which  they  could  only 
undertake,  by  first  relinquishing  that  modest 
and  womanly  demeanor  which  is  their  highest 
charm. 

Of  the  other  professions  introduced  in  connec- 
tion with  our  military,  naval,  scientific,  polytech- 
nic, mining,  and  agricultural  and  technological 
schools,  which  are  multiplying  so  rapidly,  there 
are  but  few  which  are  adapted  to  the  physical 
capacities  of  woman.  The  peasant  woman  of 
France,  Italy,  Germany,  and  Switzerland  may 
indeed  vie  with  man  in  her  ability  for  coarse, 
hard,  severe  out-door  labor;  she  may  plow, 
reap,  mow,  and  dig  as  well  and  stoutly  as  her 
husband ;  she  may  bear  as  heavy  burdens,  and 
compete  with  him  in  all  rough  and  muscular  em- 
ployments ;  but  in  so  doing,  she  soon  loses  her 
beauty,  her  grace,  and  her  refinement  of  man- 
ners, and  becomes  a  clod.  We  have  no  desire 
ever  to  see  an  American  woman  undertake  any 


174  EMPLOYMENTS   OF    WOMEN. 

of  these  employments,  even  if  they  had  the 
strength  for  them.  In  the  case  of  the  educated 
classes,  there  is,  moreover,  a  physical  inability 
for  the  greater  part  of  these  new  professions. 
The  West  Point  course,  for  instance;  granting  that 
a  young  woman,  by  dint  of  extraordinary  phys- 
ical ability  and  vigor,  succeeded  in  passing 
through  it,  what  could  she  do  with  the  education 
there  obtained  ? 

We  are  sure  that  no  one,  with  the  possible  ex. 
ception  of  the  editors  of  the  Revolution,  would 
contend  that  a  "military  career  was  desirable  for 
a  woman.  Under  peculiar  and  exceptional  cir- 
cumstances, in  times  of  great  national  danger, 
women  (one  or  two  in  a  century)  have,  it  is  true, 
taken  the  lead  of  military  enterprises,  and  with 
success  in  some  cases ;  but,  would  it  be  worth 
while,  for  such  a  possible  contingency,  to  educate 
women  for  a  military  life  ?  Is  the  army  career  cal- 
culated to  develop  the  graces  or  amenities  of  life  ? 
No !  when  the  great  emergency  comes,  if  it  ever 
does  come,  when  a  woman  is  needed  to  lead  our 
forces  to  battle,  we  may  be  sure  that  a  better 
leader  can  be  found  among  the  volunteers  than 
we  could  train  for  the  work,  if  we  graduated  a 
hundred  from  the  military  academy  every  year. 

Of  the  special  sciences  taught  there,  such  as 
fortification,  military  and  topographical  engineer- 
ing, &c.,  there  are  few  or  none  which  a  woman 
could  practice  successfully.  The  construction  of 


EMPLOYMENTS    OP    WOMEN. 

forts  and  batteries,  the  laying  out  and  building  of 
railroads,  military  roads,  canals,  breakwaters,  &<?., 
are  not  avocations  in  which  women  are  likely  to 
distinguish  themselves.  The  duties  of  the  sur- 
veyor, superintendent,  or  engineer  of  mines,  of  the 
locomotive  engineer,  the  technological  chemist, 
the  navigator,  the  captain  or  engineer  of  a  steam- 
ship, the  constructor  of  a  sewer,  the  foreman  of  a 
fire-engine,  the  superintendent  of  a  great  manu- 
factory, or  manager  of  a  machine-shop,  are  all  of 
a  class  which  women  would  very  seldom  have  the 
physical  strength  to  perform  well,  and  which, 
except  in  those  rare  cases  which  bid  defiance  to 
all  rules,  it  would  be  undesirable  that  they  should 
undertake. 

Some  departments  of  agriculture  and  horticulture 
do  furnish  appropriate  employment  for  women. 
In  the  late  civil  war,  when  the  draft  weighed 
heavily  upon  the  farming  population  of  the  newer 
Western  States,  great  numbers  of  the  patriotic 
women  of  Illinois,  Minnesota,  Wisconsin,  Iowa, 
Missouri,  and  Kansas,  the  wives,  sisters,  and 
daughters  of  the  men  who  had  gone  to  fight  the 
nation's  battles,  undertook  most  of  the  heavy 
farm-work — a  few  held  the  plow,  and  many 
more  "  cultivated "  the  corn,  drove  the  mowers 
and  reapers,  gathered,  bound  and  stacked  the 
grain,  or  raked,  loaded,  and  housed  the  hay, 
gathered,  husked,  shelled,  and  sent  to  market 
the  corn,  thrashed  the  wheat,  oats,  and  barley, 


}76  EMPLOYMENTS   OF  WOMEN. 

and  sacked  and  shipped  them,  and  cared  for  the 
live-stock,  doing  nearly  as  well  as  if  the  men  had 
been  at  home  to  attend  to  their  duties  themselves. 
We  trust  the  time  will  never  come  when  they 
will  be  called  to  such  severe  labor  again ;  though 
we  doubt  not  that  it  would  be  undertaken  cheer- 
fully from  similar  motives.  But  there  is  much 
work  on  a  farm  which  women  may  perform  with 
success  and  honor  to  themselves.  The  mother 
of  a  farmer's  family,  or,  in  case  of  her  absence  or 
inability,  some  other  woman  of  the  household, 
will  always,  on  a  large  farm,  have  abundant  labor 
and  care  in  the  management  of  the  household 
affairs.  The  providing  meals  for  so  large  a  family, 
the  care  of  the  clothing  and  the  training  of  the 
children,  and  their  education,  which  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  must  come  upon  the  mother;  the 
care  of  the  fowls  and  small  animals  of  the  live- 
stock, will  keep  her  time  very  fully  occupied ;  if 
the  farm  is  partly  or  wholly  devoted  to  dairy 
products,  her  cares  will  be  increased,  though  not 
so  much,  in  these  days  of  cheese  and  butter  fac- 
tories, as  formerly.  But  it  is  often  the  case  that 
a  young,  spirited,  and  enterprising  woman  under- 
takes the  management  of  a  farm  herself,  and  if 
she  is  intelligent  in  regard  to  farm  work,  and 
possessed  of  fair  executive  ability,  she  usually 
succeeds  well. 

Bat    it  is  especially  in  market-gardening,  and 
garden  truck  and  small  fruit  farming,  that  women 


EMPLOYMENTS  OF  "WOMEN.  ^77 

have  been  most  successful.  For  many  miles  around 
our  large  cities  there  are  favorable  opportunities 
for  these  agricultural  enterprises.  The  labor  is 
somewhat  severe,  and  during  the  summer  months 
confining,  but  while  some  male  help  is  needed, 
this  is  an  employment,  which,  if  well  managed, 
will  yield  excellent  returns.  The  succession  of 
early  vegetables,  strawberries,  raspberries,  black- 
berries, cherries,  green  corn,  tomatoes,  beets, 
cauliflowers,  early  potatoes,  cabbages,  plums, 
grapes,  peaches,  pears,  and  early  summer  and 
autumn  apples,  insures  constant  employment,  and 
keeps  both  mind  and  body  active  and  alert. 
To  those  who  are  appalled  by  so  long  a  list  of 
products,  the  cultivation  of  the  small  fruits  only 
furnishes  a  pleasant  and  recreative  employment. 

The  keeping  of  bees,  the  rearing  of  silk-worms, 
and  the  care  of  some  of  the  more  fanciful  varieties 
of  domestic  fowls,  and  pigeons,  guinea-hens,  ducks, 
geese,  turkeys,  and  rabbits,  all  furnish  employ- 
ment which  is  both  pleasant  and  profitable. 

Horticulture  and  floriculture,  as  well  as  the 
management  of  a  nursery  of  young  trees,  are 
employments  which  might  be  in  the  hands  of 
women  to  a  much  greater  extent  than  they  are. 
At  present,  very  few  women  cultivate  flowers  for 
any  other  purpose  than  their  own  pleasure,  or  the 
gratification  of  their  friends  ;  but  there  is  nothing 
so  abstruse  in  the  arts  of  the  florist  and  nursery- 
man, and  nothing  so  severe  in  the  labor  required, 

7*  » 


178  EMPLOYMENTS  OF  WOMEN. 

as  to  put  either  beyond  the  reach  of  a  resolute 
woman,  and  the  business  is  one  peculiarly  health- 
ful and  refining  in  its  character.  If  the  enterprise 
is  conducted  on  a  scale  sufficiently  large,  the  col- 
lection and  packing  of  flower-seeds  is  a  branch 
of  the  business  which  will  afford  great  pleasure 
and  profit.  An  enterprising,  intelligent  woman, 
with  some  capital,  who  would  qualify  herself  for 
this  business  and  engage  in  it,  on  a  large  scale, 
might  make  her  own  fortune  and  afford  a  pleas- 
ant and  remunerative  employment  to  a  large 
number  of  her  own  sex. 

In  the  practice  of  some  branches  of  chemical 
technology  there  is  nothing  necessarily  beyond  a 
woman's  ability,  though  the  work  would  be 
hardly  agreeable  to  most  women,  involving  as  it 
would,  a  necessity  for  a  dress  approximating  to 
that  of  a  man,  to  avoid  the  perils  of  the  flowing 
dress  and  readily  combustible  material  usually 
worn  by  women.  The  protracted  and  severe 
study,  and  the  constant  laboratory  practice  re- 
quired to  keep  pace  with  the  rapidly  increasing 
volume  of  discoveries  in  organic  chemistry,  would 
deter  most  women  from  attempting  to  enter  upon 
the  practice  of  general  applied  chemistry. 

In  the  fine  arts,  especially  in  painting,  sculp- 
ture, and  music,  a  few  women  have  distinguished 
themselves  ;  and  if  the  opportunity  had  been  af- 
forded them,  or  they  had  possessed  the  same 
resolute  will,  probably  a  considerably  larger  num- 


),         '').  *,   Vail 

••-'/      '  '  -i    -Si    '  ••  I v  '  • 


EMPLOYMENTS   OP   WOMEN. 

ber  might  have  done  so.  In  the  reproduction  of 
actual  landscape,  or  the  portraiture  of  animals, 
even  in  those  minute*  points  which  indicate  the 
skill  of  the  artist,  they  have  been  admirable, 
and  their  statues  and  busts  of  eminent  men,  liv- 
ing or  dead,  have  been,  in  some  instances,  re- 
markable for  their  faithfulness  and  spirit ;  but  in 
general  they  have  shown  very  little  creative 
power.  Rosa  Bonheur's  "  Horse  Fair,''  and  her 
other  pictures  of  animal  life,  entitle  her  to  rank 
with  Sir  Edwin  Landseer,  in  this  department  of 
her  art.  Yet  she  has  never  ventured,  as  indeed 
she  had  no  occasion,  into  the  ideal  world  for  the 
subjects  of  her  paintings.  There  seems  to  be  no 
good  reason  why  this  creative  faculty  should  not 
be  developed  in  women,  except,  possibly,  that  in 
their  mental  constitution,  the  inventive  or  cre- 
ative power  is  weaker  than  in  men.  In  music, 
there  have  been  women-singers  of  extraordinary 
power  and  skill,  female  pianists,  harpists,  vio- 
linists, organists  of  remarkable  ability ;  but 
very  few  composers,  and  generally  those  of  only 
the  second  or  third  class.  In  their  several  de- 
partments of  musical  art,  the  names  of  Jenny 
Lind  (Goldschmidt),  Julia  Grisi,  Catharine  Hayes, 
Anne  Seguin,  Anna  Bishop,  Madame  Laborde, 
Madame  Parepa  Rosa,  Adelina  Patti  (Caux),  Clara 
Louisa  Kellogg,  and  others,  will  always  be  remem- 
bered for  their  powers  of  vocalization,  and  a  still 
longer  list  of  instrumental  performers  of  very  high 


EMPLOYMENTS   OF   WOMEN. 

rank  attests  the  ability  of  women  to  attain  to  the 
highest  plane  of  musical  art. 

It  is  surprising  that  with  voice,  ear,  and  hand 
so  fully  and  delicately  attuned  to  the  highest 
musical  excellence,  there  should  never  have  been 
a  Mozart,  a  Haydn,  a  Handel,  a  Beethoven,  a 
Mendelsshori,  or  a  Rossini,  or  even  a  composer  of 
the  second  rank,  among  the  women  devoted  to 
music.  Musical  composers  there  have  been 
among  them  indeed,  and  some  whose  melodies 
possessed  rare  sweetness,  and  considerable  vigor 
and  originality ;  but  none  who  have  won  to 
themselves  an  undying  fame.  These  may,  it  is 
true,  be  among  the  wonders  of  the  future.  To  wo- 
men who  possess  the  natural  talent  for  becoming 
professional  singers  or  players,  and  are  willing  to 
go  through  the  severe  and  protracted  study  re- 
quired to  attain  excellence,  the  musical  profession 
offers  fair  rewards.  As  most  of  the  eminent  fe- 
male vocalists  have  sung  in  opera,  this  naturally 
brings  us  to  speak  of  the  stage  as  furnishing  an 
occupation  for  women. 

There  have  been,  in  the  past  hundred  years,  a 
very  considerable  number  of  estimable  women 
who  have  been  connected  with  the  dramatic  pro- 
fession. For  the  most  part,  women  of  high 
character  and  aspirations  have  preferred  tragedy, 
as  more  dignified  in  character,  and  affording  a  bet- 
ter scope  for  their  powers  than  any  other  depart- 
ment of  the  drama  ;  and  a  calling  which  has  been 


EMPLOYMENTS  OF  WOMEN. 

graced  by  such  eminent  names  as  Mrs.  Siddons, 
Mrs.  Fanny  Kemble,  Charlotte  Cushman,  Ristori, 
Rachel,  Mrs.  Charles  Kean,  Mrs.  Mowatt,  Mrs. 
Lander,  and  others  hardly  inferior  in  reputation, 
may  perhaps  fairly  claim  a  right  to  be  considered 
among  the  appropriate  occupations  for  women. 
And  yet,  when  we  consider  how  numerous  are  the 
temptations  to  which  the  actress  is  exposed,  how 
dissolute  the  society  by  which  she  is  surrounded, 
and  how  great  the  peril,  both  to  her  good  name 
and  her  eternal  interests,  we  can  not  recommend 
any  woman  who  has  any  regard  for  her  own  repu- 
tation, to  endanger  it  by  entering  upon  an  actress's 
career.  In  all  departments  of  theatrical  life 
there  have  been,  .we  doubt  not,  good  and  true 
women  ;  we  can  even  conceive  it  possible,  that 
among  the  ballet-dancers,  there  have  been  some, 
whose  purity  of  life  was  in  strange  contrast  with 
the  performances  which  formed  a  part  of  their 
daily  duties;  but  we  only  echo  the  opinion  of  one 
who  herself  has  borne  an  active  part  in  theatrical 
life,  when  we  say  that  in  the  present  condition  of 
the  drama,  no  pure-minded  woman  has  a  right  to 
imperil  her  reputation  and  her  hopes  of  heaven 
by  entering  upon  a  theatrical  career.  The  atmos- 
phere of  the  theater  is,  at  the  present  day,  wholly 
corrupting,  and  it  is  impossible  for  any  one  to 
enter  it  without  receiving  a  moral  taint,  which,  like 
the  poisoned  breath  on  the  polished  steel,  will 
corrode  the  heart,  and  impair  its  purity  forever. 


184  EMPLOYMENTS  OF  WOMEN. 

The  stage,  then,  is  not  among  the  fit  occupations 
for  women,  nor  will  it  be,  till  that  time  shall  arrive 
when  it  shall  indeed  become  what  it  has  often 
been  styled,  but  never  really  was,  "  a  School  of 
Morals." 


CHAPTER    XI. 

WE  come  next  to  consider  the  literary  occupa- 
tions of  woman,  aside  from  those  of  the  teacher 
and  other  professions.  The  number  of  women 
who  are  engaged  in  authorship  is  increasing,  but 
they  are  mostly  occupied  with  one  or  other  of 
three  classes  of  works,  novels,  juvenile  books — 
usually  also  fictions — and  poetry.  These  three 
classes  include  a  little  more  than  two-fifths  of  all 
the  books  published  in  any  given  year,  but 
the  proportion  of  those  written  by  women  to  the 
whole  number  of  works  of  which  they  are 
authors,  is  certainly  seven-eighths.  Occasionally 
a  woman  ventures  into  the  domain  of  history,  and 
with  tolerable,  though  not  perfect  success,  for  im- 
partiality is  an  important  requisite  for  a  historian, 
and  no  woman  has  yet  undertaken  to  write  his- 
tory, certainly  not  in  England  or  the  United 
States,  who  was  not,  to  some  extent,  a  partisan. 
Biography  is  more  to  their  liking,  and  some  of  { 
the  most  successful  biographies  of  modern  times 
have  been  written  by  women.  In  metaphysical 
science  few  women  have  ventured,  and  never, 
thus  far,  with  such  ability  as  to  encourage  others 
to  attempt  it.  In  political  economy,  a  few  women 


138  LITEEARY    OCCUPATIONS. 

of  our  century  have  done  themselves  honor.  In 
physical  science,  especially  in  astronomy,  physi- 
cal geography,  botany,  and  zoology,  they  have  done 
well.  In  criticism,  either  in  art  or  literature, 
there  are  not  more  than  one  or  two  names  of  any 
eminence. 

The  classics  seem  to  have  very  little  charm  for 
them,  only  two  women  of  any  note  as  authors  in 
the  present  century  having  attained  such  a  mas- 
tery of  them,  as  to  warrant  them  in  writing  any 
thing  worth  reading  on  the  subject,  to  wit :  Eliz- 
abeth Barrett  Browning,  and  S.  Margaret  Fuller 
(D'Ossoli).  Nor  are  there  any  female  writers  in 
the  English  tongue  who  have  discussed  with 
marked  ability  the  classical  works  of  either 
English  or  continental  literature.  The  general 
distaste  of  the  sex  for  mathematical  studies  has 
prevented  them  from  attaining  any  distinction 
in  statistical  works. 

As  novelists,  women  often  manifest  signal 
ability  in  description  and  narration ;  occasionally 
considerable  ingenuity  in  the  conception  and 
management  of  the  plot  of  the  story ;  and  if  they 
describe  from  the  life,  their  characters  sometimes 
stand  out  with  a  marvelous  distinctness,  and  to 
the  superficial  critic,  seem  veritable  creations ; 
but  the  great  defect  of  all  their  novels  is,  that 
the  real  creative  faculty  is  wanting ;  that  they 
can  only  describe  what  they  have  seen,  and  sub- 
stantially only  in  the  relations  in  which  they  have 


LITERARY   OCCUPATIONS  189 

seen  it.  To  this  deficiency  it  is  to  be  attributed 
that  among  all  the  female  novelists  of  modern 
times  (over  one  thousand  in  all),  there  is  not  one 
who  can  claim  to  rank,  in  permanent  reputation, 
with  several  of  the  great  novelists  of  the  other 
sex. 

As  writers  for  children,  women  are  entitled  to 
a  high,  perhaps  the  highest  rank.  We  certainly 
can  recall  no  names  of  male  writers  at  the  present 
day,  who  have  been  more  successful  in  writing 
for  the  young,  than  any  one  of  a  score  of  women 
in  England  and  America,  whose  books  are,  and 
will  be,  among  the  most  precious  treasures  of 
young  hearts. 

In  the  realm  of  poetry,  women  have  attained  to 
a  fair,  yet  not  to  the  highest  success.  The  creative 
faculty  is,  so  far,  wanting  for  the  production  of  any 
of  those  grand  epics,  of  which  that  century  is  but 
too  happy  which  can  reckon  one  among  its  treas- 
ures. Mrs.  Browning  has  made  the  nearest 
approach  to  being  a  great  poet  of  any  woman  of 
modern  times.  In  lyric  and  sentimental  poetry, 
we  can  not  reckon  woman  inferior  to  the  other  sex; 
but  many  of  the  so-called  "  collections  of  poems,'' 
from  male  as  well  as  female  writers,  indicate 
rather  facility  of  versification,  a  poetical  feeling, 
and  a  considerable  acquaintance  with  poetical 
literature,  than  any  real  poetic  talent;  and  even 
those  who  are  not  wanting  in  poetic  concep- 
tion, too  often,  by  a  culpable  carelessness  and 


190  LITERARY   OCCUPATIONS. 

inattention  to  the  elaboration  and  artistic  finish  of 
their  poems,  deprive  them  of  much  of  their  value. 
We  can  not,  however,  reckon  the  writing  of 
poetry  as  one  of  those  avocations  by  which 
woman  can  earn  a  livelihood.  Poems,  the  publish- 
ers say,  do  not  sell,  except  in  rare  instances,  and 
they  will  seldom  run  the  risk  of  publishing  them, 
unless  the  author  will  guarantee  the  expenses.  At 
least  four-fifths  of  the  volumes  of  poems  by  female 
writers  first  published  within  the  past  five  years, 
have  proved  heavy  pecuniary  losses  to  their  auth- 
ors or  publishers.  Novels  are  a  little  more  profit- 
able, but  very  few  of  them,  unless  by  well  known 
writers,  pay  for  the  labor  expended  on  them.  Of 
late  years,  women  have  become,  very  largely, 
contributors  to  our  magazines  and  periodicals, 
either  as  essayists,  critics,  writers  of  short  stories, 
or  novelettes,  or  of  serial  novels,  generally  pub- 
lished subsequently  in  book  form.  In  one  or 
other  of  these  ways,  a  considerable  number  have 
received  a  fair  compensation  for  their  work. 
Much  of  this  writing,  it  is  just  to  say,  is  of  very 
fair  quality ;  not  of  the  highest,  for  magazine 
writing  is  apt  to  be  a  little  slipshod.  Some  of  it. 
especially  that  for  the  weekly  family  papers,  is 
mere  trash,  only  to  be  measured  by  the  yard,  and 
really  worth  less  than  the  pure  white  paper  which 
it  mars  and  blots.  We  are  not  prepared  to  say 
however,  that  the  part  of  these  papers  written  by 
women  is  worse  than  that  contributed  by  men — 


LITERARY   OCCUPATIONS. 

both  are  bad  enough,  and  unworthy  of  their 
authors. 

A  considerable  number  of  women  have  of  late 
years  became  editors  or  managers  of  monthly, 
fortnightly,  weekly,  and  we  believe,  in  one  or  two 
instances,  daily  papers.  We  can  not  honestly  con- 
gratulate them  on  their  success.  A  few  of  the 
monthlies  have  been  moderately  well  edited,  but 
generally,  where  a  woman  has  been  the  sole  edit- 
or, the  periodicals  have  been  failures,  both  in  a 
literary  and  financial  sense. 

At  first  sight  it  seems  difficult  to  account  for 
this ;  for  many  women  undoubtedly  possess  some 
of  the  qualities  requisite  for  successful  journalism  : 
quickness  of  perception,  the  power  of  ready  and 
rapid  composition,  and  the  faculty  of  discerning 
the  important  issues  to  be  discussed;  but  they 
fail  oftenest  in  their  lack  of  logical  power,  and 
terse,  condensed  argument,  and  in  the  want  of 
discrimination  in  regard  to  the  articles  of  others 
selected  for  publication.  Women  are  often  mer- 
ciless critics,  but  their  taste  in  selection  is  not 
always  as  correct,  as  their  criticism  is  severe. 

Where,  on  the  other  hand,  the  two  sexes  are 
united  in  the  conduct  of  a  periodical,  especially 
one  of  higher  literature,  they  have  generally  been 
more  successful  than  either  would  have  been 
alone.  At  the  same  time,  the  experience  of  most 
of  those  who  have  been  associated  with  women  in 
literary  enterprises  is,  that  many  of  them  are 


192  LITERARY  OCCUPATIONS. 

given  to  carelessness  in  the  performance  of  their 
share  of  the  duties,  to  shirking  the  difficult  parts, 
and  to  diminishing  somewhat  the  full  quota  of 
work  to  which  they  are  pledged.  We  do  not 
believe  that  all,  perhaps  not  the  major  part  of 
literary  women  would  do  this,  for  many  are  truly 
conscientious ;  but  too  often,  a  woman  engaged 
in  literary  pursuits,  is  a  little  more  prone  to  shel- 
ter herself  under  the  privileges  of  her  sex,  than 
women  in  other  avocations.  We  need  not  say 
how  prejudicial  this  general  reputation  is  to  the 
real  interests  of  literary  women,  nor  how  often  it 
causes  their  rejection  from  positions  for  which 
they  are  eminently  qualified,  if  only  reliance  could 
be  placed  on  their  faithful  performance  of  the 
duties  required.  The  late  Mrs.  Sigourney  was 
an  eminent  exception  to  this  class.  Whatever 
pledges  she  made,  either  as  to  the  time  of  com- 
pletion, the  quality  or  the  quantity  of  her  literary 
work,  were  fulfilled  to  the  letter,  even  at  the 
greatest  personal  inconvenience.  She  was  the 
soul  of  honor  and  conscientiousness  ;  we  wish  as 
much  could  be  said  of  some  living  literary  women. 
The  literary  labor  of  women  who  are  employed 
either  as  editors  or  contributors  to  literary  period- 
icals, is  generally  compensated  as  highly  as  that 
of  men  in  similar  circumstances. 

We  have  already  spoken  of  those  women  who 
are  employed  in  the  government  offices.  There 
can  be  no  question,  that  if  the  Civil  Service  bill 


LITERARY   OCCUPATIONS. 

were  passed,  and  the  qualifications  of  both  male 
and  female  clerks  subjected  to  a  rigid  examina- 
tion, as  large  a  number  of  competent  women  as 
of  competent  men  would  be  found  for  the  service  ; 
and  if,  as  in  most  instances  would  be  the  case, 
they  could  accomplish,  without  injury  to  their 
health,  the  same  amount  of  labor  as  the  men,  they 
would  undoubtedly  receive,  as  they  ought,  the 
same  salaries  as  the  men  of  the  same  departmental 
class.  The  very  considerable  number  of  incompe- 
tents among,  the  present  women  clerks  in  Washing- 
ton is  no  indication  of  the  inability  of  women  to  fill 
these  places  with  first-rate  ability ;  for  those  who 
were  not  fit  for  the  place,  were  not  appointed  on  any 
grounds  of  fitness,  but  simply  to  satisfy  the  demand 
of  members  of  Congress,  and  others,  who  insisted  on 
a  place  being  made  for  their  favorites.  There  is 
nothing  in  most  of  the  government  clerkships, 
which  an  intelligent  and  well-educated  woman 
may  not  do  as  well  as  a  man. 

Turning  to  other  employments  not  of  a  strictly 
literary  character,  yet  requiring  considerable  edu- 
cation for  their  proper  performance,  we  must  con- 
fess that  we  see  no  good  reason  why  women  should 
not  be  employed  as  clerks  and  tellers  in  banks  and 
private  banking-houses.  We  might  go  further, 
and  say  that  there  are  women  who  possess  the 
financial  ability  to  fill  the  posts  of  cashier  and 
president,  better  than  they  are  filled  in  half  the 
banks  in  the  country.  We  are  not  aware  that 


194  EMPLOYMENTS   OF   WOMEN. 

they  have  been  employed  in  the  subordinate 
positions  to  any  extent ;  but  they  certainly  might 
be  to  advantage.  Rapidity  and  accuracy  in  count- 
ing money,  the  ready  intuition  which  discovers 
counterfeits,  by  the  feel,  or  by  a  glance,  and  the 
quick  detection  of  forged  paper,  are  all  qualities 
in  which  woman  can,  from  her  greater  nervous 
activity,  her  more  delicate  touch,  and  her  keener 
instinctiveness,  excel  man.  That  she  can  become 
as  expert  in  accounts  as  a  man,  has  been  abund- 
antly proved ;  and  in  other  qualifications  of  a 
moral  character  she  surpasses  most  male  appli- 
cants for  such  position.  In  money  matters,  women 
are  generally  more  trustworthy  than  men ;  they 
have  not  the  same  temptations,  of  drinking,  gam- 
bling, evil  associates,  and  stock  speculations,  as 
young  men,  and  would  generally  apply  more 
closely  to  their  business. 

For  the  sake  of  the  banks  and  bankers,  then, 
we  should  advise  the  discharge  of  the  greater  part 
of  their  clerks,  and  the  substitution,  as  fast  as 
they  can  be  qualified  for  the  places,  of  competent 
young  women  of  high  character,  at  the  same 
salaries.  We  believe  the  work  would  be  better 
done,  and  that  there  would  be  a  far  smaller 
number  of  defalcations  and  breaches  of  trust  to 
report. 

The  same  arguments  will  apply  with  equal 
force  to  their  employment  in  life  and  fire  insur. 
ance  offices,  where  they  would  do  the  work  much 


EMPLOYMENTS    OP    WOMEN. 

better  than  it  is  now  done,  and  with  fewer  frauds 
and  embezzlements. 

There  is  another  side  to  this  question,  however. 
While  the  advantages  to  bankers  and  underwrit- 
ers, of  their  employment  would  be  very  great, 
the  advantage  to  the  women  themselves  might  be 
slight.  All  these  confining  employments,  requir- 
ing the  brain  to  be  constantly  kept  intensely 
active,  are  very  injurious  to  health ;  and  it  is 
a  question  whether  the  very  delicacy  of  structure, 
which  would  render  woman  so  valuable  in  situa. 
tions  like  these,  would  not  speedily  induce 
impaired  health,  and  cause  her  to  fall  a  victim  to 
overwork.  A  continued  strain  of  this  sort  tells 
more  severely  and  fatally  upon  woman  than  man, 
and  overwork,  in  our  banks  and  insurance  offices,  is 
killing  far  more  men  than  we  can  afford  to  lose. 

We  can  not,  therefore,  as  a  true  friend  of 
women,  commend  these  situations  to  them,  though 
we  have  no  doubt  of  their  intellectual  and  moral 
competency  for  them. 

In  our  Western  cities,  and  to  some  extent  in 
New  York,  women  well  educated  for  these  posi- 
tions are  becoming  the  cashiers,  book-keepers, 
and  confidential  clerks  of  large  wholesale  houses. 
That  they  perform  their  duties  faithfully  and  well, 
is  the  universal  testimony  of  those  who  have 
employed  them,  and  though  they  have  gen- 
erally been  employed  at  a  lower  salary  than  male 
clerks,  cashiers,  &c.,  of  no  tetter  qualifications, 


196  EMPLOYMENTS    OF    WOMEN. 

we  have  yet  to  hear  of  the  first  defalcation  among 
them. 

Their  employment  as  clerks  and  saleswomen  in 
retail  stores,  especially  those  engaged  in  the  sale 
of  drygoods,  fancy  goods,  laces,  silks,  fringes,  &c., 
as  well  as  in  toy,  confectionery,  flower,  bakery^ 
and  tobacconists'  shops,  has  been  so  common  for 
some  years  past,  that  no  one  doubts  their  capacity 
for  such  work.  It  has  been  said,  indeed,  that  they 
lacked  the  physical  endurance  needed  for  an 
occupation  which  required  them  to  stand  so  many 
hours ;  and  some  have  complained  that  they  failed 
in  tact  in  dealing  with  their  customers — that  they 
were  very  apt  to  make  errors  both  in  the  quality 
of  goods  and  in  making  change.  But  these  objec- 
tions, however  valid  they  may  be  against  individ- 
uals, weigh  very  little  against  the  ability  of  the 
sex  for  trade.  That  many  of  them  are  equal  in 
physical  endurance  to  the  other  sex  can  not  be 
denied ;  and  the  other  shortcomings  only  prove 
that  the  individuals  objected  to  had  not  been 
trained  for  their  work,  and  were  not  competent  to 
perform  it  properly.  In  general,  women  make 
more  sales  than  men,  in  retail  stores  where  both 
are  employed,  and  though  many  customers  prefer 
to  deal  with  men,  since  they  find  it  easier  to 
decline  purchasing  from  them  when  they  wish  to 
do  so,  yet  a  woman  will  be  more  sure  to  effect  a 
sale  to  a  customer  whose  mind  is  undecided,  than 
a  man. 


EMPLOYMENTS  OF    WOMEN. 

Of  late  years,  women  have  been  qualifying 
themselves  for  telegraph  operators,  and  prove 
very  successful  in  that  calling.  The  popular 
proverb  about  a  woman's  not  being  able  to  keep  a 
secret,  whether  true  or  false,  does  not  now  apply 
in  this  business,  since  nearly  or  quite  all  the 
messages  in  which  secrecy  is  important,  are  con- 
veyed in  cipher,  and  are  as  unintelligible  to  the 
operator  as  to  outsiders.  Moreover,  if  a  secret  of 
any  moment  is  confided  to  the  telegraph  without 
being  put  in  cipher,  some  male  gossip  is  quite 
as  likely  to  let  it  out  as  the  woman. 

Another  calling  in  which  a  considerable  number 
of  women  finJ  a  livelihood,  is  copying,  or  writing 
from  dictation.  There  is  a  large  amount  of  copy- 
ing to  be  done  in  the  law  offices,  offices  of  patent 
solicitors,  and  in  the  transcribing  of  badly  written 
manuscripts  intended  for  the  press.  There  are, 
also,  many  gentlemen  who,  from  the  illegibility 
of  their  penmanship,  or  from  other  causes,  require 
an  amanuensis,  or  private  secretary,  as  we  believe 
it  is  the  fashion  now  to  call  them.  Women  se- 
cure much  of  this  work,  and  if  their  handwriting 
was  more  clear  and  legible,  and  they  were  more 
generally  and  uniformly  accurate  in  spelling  and 
punctuation,  they  would  obtain  nearly  the  whole. 

Photography,  in  its  various  branches,  is  an  art 
in  which  a  few  women  have  engaged  with  great 
success,  and  more  might  do  so  with  advantage. 
Women  have  not,  we  believe,  contributed  any  new 

8 


198  EMPLOYMENTS    OF  WOMEN. 

discoveries  of  importance  to  this  art,  but  their  mani- 
pulation, when  they  are  thoroughly  familiar  with 
the  business,  is  superior  to  that  of  men.  Of 
course,  a  fair  knowledge  of  practical  chemistry  is 
important  in  this  pursuit.  The  coloring  of  photo- 
graphs, a  business  requiring  delicacy  of  touch, 
taste,  and  artistic  skill,  is  very  largely  in  the 
hands  of  women. 

For  a  few  years  past,  large  classes  have  been 
instructed  in  most  of  our  large  cities  in  the  arts 
of  drawing  and  engraving  on  wood.  A  few  sue- 

a  o  «.j 

ceed  well  in  the  drawing,  and  a  still  smaller  num- 
ber in  the  engraving,  while  the  rest  never  acquire 
the  skill  necessary  to  enable  them  to  do  good 
work  ;  not,  their  teachers  say,  from  any  lack  of 
natural  ability,  but  because  their  minds  are  not  on 
their  work.  There  is  ample  employment  at  re- 
munerative prices  for  every  woman  who  can  en- 
grave skillfully  on  wood,  or  who  can  draw  well  upon 
the  block,  and  there  would  be,  were  their  num- 
bers ten  times  increased ;  but  the  skill  required 
can  only  be  attained  by  close  and  constant  attention 
for  some  years.  In  other  branches  of  the  engravers' 
art,  women  have  succeeded,  and  might  do  so  again, 
if  they  would  qualify  themselves  for  their  work. 

From  engraving  the  transition  is  natural  to 
printing,  and  in  this  business  there  is  a  field  for 
the  larger  employment  of  women.  They  have 
been,  almost  since  the  invention  of  power  presses, 
employed  as  feeders,  and  have  been  very  skillful 


EMPLOYMENTS    OF    WOMEN.  199 

in  their  work.  Of  late  years  they  have  been  ac- 
quiring a  knowledge  of  type-setting,  and  now  the 
compositors  on  many  newspapers,  and  in  a  con- 
siderable number  of  book  and  job  offices,  are 
women.  Mrs.  Dall,  writing  in  the  autumn  of 
1867,  estimates  the  number  of  female  compositors 
in  the  United  States  at  12,000.  In  this  business 
they  are,  on  the  average, ,  more  accurate  than, 
though  not  quite  so  quick  as,  men.  When  employed 
on  piece-work,  i.  e.,  working  at  so  much  per  thou- 
sand ems,  they  make  very  good  wages.  Work  on 
the  hand  or  treadle  presses  usually  requires  more 
strength  than  women  possess.  Recently,  a  Women's 
Typographical  Union  has  been  formed  in  New 
York,  and  embraces  most  of  the  female  compositors. 
It  will  secure  for  them  fair  compensation  for  their 
work. 

Another  branch  of  business  for  which  women 
are  especially  adapted,  but  in  which  they  are  sel- 
dom engaged,  is  the  sale  of  railroad,  steamboat, 
horse-car,  and  ferry  tickets,  and  generally  of 
tickets  to  lectures  and  places  of  amusement.  This 
work  does  not  require  strong  muscles,  but  only 
readiness  at  figures  and  skill  in  judging  of  money, 
both  matters  in  which  women  can  become  experts 
as  readily  as  men. 

We  do  not  believe  that  women  as  often  possess 
the  capacity  for  conducting  great  manufacturing 
or  commercial  enterprises  as  men ;  in  part,  per- 
haps, because  they  have  not  been  often  trained  to 


200  EMPLOYMENTS  OF  WOMEN. 

the  work ;  but  there  is  abundant  evidence  that 
some  women  do  possess  this  ability.  We  know 
that  a  young,  beautiful,  and  accomplished  woman 
in  Western  Massachusetts,  whose  husband  was 
President  and  chief  business  manager  of  a  very 
large  paper  manufactory,  when  he  was  cut  off  in 
the  prime  of  manhood,  took  his  place,  and  has 
now  been  for  some  years  the  active  and  capable 
manager  of  the  business.  We  know  that  in  the 
largest  manufactory  of  fire-arms  in  the  world,  the 
widow  of  the  founder  of  the  establishment  is  the 
largest  stockholder,  and  is  constantly  consulted 
in  its  management.  A  large  machine-shop  in  Del- 
aware, doing  a  successful  business,  is  managed 
by  the  daughter  of  its  founder,  an  intelligent 
young  woman,  who  for  some  years  worked  con- 
stantly at  the  bench,  and  now  can  do  as  large  a 
day's  work,  and  do  it  as  well,  as  any  of  the  men 
in  her  employ.  One  of  her  sisters  is  also  among 
the  most  skillful  workers  in  the  shop.  These  are 
only  single  instances,  rare  ones,  perhaps,  of  the 
occasional  ability  of  women  to  conduct  large  man- 
ufacturing operations.  In  commerce  and  trade 
they  have  oftener  engaged,  and  with  signal  suc- 
cess in  many  instances.  For  many  years,  in 
Philadelphia,  there  was  a  prominent  book-store  and 
publishing-house,  having  the  simple  sign  "  S.  HART 
&  Soisr."  Of  the  many  thousands  who  dealt  there, 
very  few  knew  that  the  "  S.''  stood  for  Sarah,  and 
that  this  was  a  firm  in  which  a  mother  and  son 


EMPLOYMENTS  OF    WOMEN.  201 

were  the  partners.  Mrs.  Hart  commenced  busi- 
ness in  this  firm  when  her  son  (Abraham  Hart, 
subsequently  an  extensive  publisher,  owner  of 
coal  mines,  and  millionnaire)  was  but  sixteen  years 
of  age,  and  took  an  active,  and  long  a  control- 
ling interest  in  the  business,  until  failing  health 
compelled  her  retirement.  But  larger  enterprises, 
commercial,  mercantile,  and  financial,  than  this 
have  been  and  still  are  in  the  hands  of  women. 
Miss  Burdett-Coutts  is  as  successful  in  her  busi- 
ness operations,  the  conducting  of  her  great  bank- 
ing-house, and  the  management  of  her  vast  estate, 
as  she  is  liberal  and  noble  in  the  dispensing  of 
her  princely  charities.  In  Paris,  and  indeed  on 
the  continent  of  Europe  generally,  some  of  the 
largest  commercial  houses  have  women  at  their 
head.*  In  New  York,  in  some  instances,  where 
the  experiment  has  been  tried  of  a  joint  manage- 
ment of  a  mercantile  business  by  husband  and 
wife,  and  has  failed,  its  subsequent  management 
by  the  wife  alone  has  proved  successful.  The 
number  of  women  engaged  in  business  in  their 
own  names  in  all  our  large  cities  is  already  great, 
and  is  constantly  increasing.  Few  of  them,  as 
yet,  engage  in  wholesale  trade,  but  those  few, 
as  well  as  the  retailers,  have  generally  been  suc- 
cessful. 

Rev.  Dr.  Malcom,  who  about  thirty  years  ago 

*   The  name  of  Veuve   Clicquot   (the  widow  Clicquot),  one  of  the 
largest  manufacturers  of  champagne,  will  occur  to  many  of  our  readers. 


202  EMPLOYMENTS  OF    WOMEN. 

traveled  extensively  in  India,  Burmah,  and  Siam, 
says  that  in  Burmah  the  women  are  the  sole 
merchants  and  traders,  and  that  they  always  ac- 
cumulate property.  They  act  invariably,  he  says, 
upon  the  cash  principle,  buying  only  what  they 
have  the  money  to  pay  for,  and  giving  no  credit. 
More  than  one  of  the  merchant  princes  of  England 
and  of  the  United  States  has  given  to  a  favorite 
daughter  a  thorough  business  training,  and  has 
subsequently  found  his  account  in  this  instruction, 
when  her  clear  intuition  has  enabled  her  to  fore- 
see and  suggest  a  means  of  escape  from  threatened 
disaster,  or  to  discern  in  the  immediate  future  a 
wave  of  prosperity,  for  which,  but  for  her,  he 
would  have  been  unprepared. 

But  while  admitting  the  business  ability  of 
women,  we  do  not  believe  that  mercantile  life 
exerts  a  favorable  influence  on  their  characters. 
The  assurance,  coolness,  keenness,  and  hardness, 
which  are  almost  inevitably  developed  in  the  mer- 
chant, and  more  distinctly,  perhaps,  in  the  retail 
trader,  than  in  the  wholesale  dealer,  stamp  their 
impress  more  deeply  upon  the  heart  of  woman 
than  man,  and  in  this  rough  attrition  with  the 
world,  too  often  the  down  is  rubbed  off  the  fair 
and  luscious  peach — the  delicate  blush  of  maiden 
modesty  gives  place  to  the  calm,  cool,  self-pos- 
sessed expression  of  a  woman  who  has  become  hard- 
ened to  the  stare,  and  indifferent  to  the  opin- 
ion of  those  with  whom  she  is  brought  into 


EMPLOYMENTS   OP   WOMEN.  203 

contact.  The  change  is  not  alone  in  the  seeming. 
The  woman  has  become  hard  and  worldly,  and 
desirous  of  gain,  and  she  is  more  of  the  earth, 
earthy,  than  she  would  have  been  in  her  home,  or 
in  some  pursuit  which  did  not  call  out  so  fully  the 
more  groveling  elements  of  her  character. 

We  come  next  to  consider  those  employments, 
which,  while  they  are  undoubtedly  feminine  in 
their  character,  are  sadly  overcrowded,  and  hence, 
in  many  cases,  do  not  yield  an  adequate  livelihood 
to  the  sad  and  worn  toilers  in  them.  Embroidery, 
though  an  art  requiring  long  and  patient  training, 
and  in  some  of  its  varieties  the  exercise  of  much 
skill,  is  wretchedly  underpaid  ;  in  part  because  the 
workers  are  brought  into  competition  with  the 
convent  work  of  Mexico,  South  America,  and  the 
continent  of  Europe,  which  is  very  cheap,  because 
the  labor  of  the  nuns  is  unpaid  ;  and  partly  be- 
cause this  trade  is  mostly  in  the  hands  of 
Jews,  who  manifest  great  skill  in  obtaining  needle- 
work at  a  very  low  price,  and  -selling  it  at  a  very 
high  one.  It  is  almost  impossible  for  the  most 
rapid  embroiderer  to  earn  enough  at  her  very  try- 
ing and  wearisome  work  to  support  herself  in  any 
comfort.  How  must  it  be,  then,  with  those  less 
skillful? 

Other  branches  of  skilled  needlework  pay  bet- 
ter. A  really  good  needlewoman  can  usually 
make  a  fair  livelihood  by  her  needle,  either  as 
milliner,  dressmaker,  or  tailoress.  And,  though 


204  EMPLOYMENTS    OF  WOMEN. 

in  our  cities,  the  great  increase  which  has  taken 
place  of  late  in  the  production  of  ready-made 
goods,  of  women's  as  well  as  of  men's  wear,  has 
somewhat  reduced  the  price  paid  for  fine  sewing, 
yet  the  more  abundant  supply  of  this  description 
of  work  in  part  compensates  for  this.  The  trade 
in  women's  goods  is  now  in  the  hands  of 
men  of  a  higher  class,  who  are  disposed  to 
deal  more  fairly  by  the  women  they  employ 
than  the  shirt-makers,  and  ready-made  clothing 
manufacturers  of  goods  for  men's  wear,  have 
hitherto  done. 

But  as  we  leave  the  class  of  skilled  needle- 
women, and  come  among  those  who  have  the 
ability  only  to  make  up  in  the  plainest  and  cheap- 
est way  the  slop-work  of  the  low-priced  shops, 
we  find  again  a  fearful  amount  of  overcrowding. 
Shirts  and  vests,  overalls,  and  cheap  linen  coats 
made  up  at  from  fifty  cents  to  one  dollar  and 
twenty-five  cents  per  dozen,  the  sewer  finding 
thread  and  needlesj  do  not  furnish  employment  so 
lucrative  that  we  should  suppose  there  would  be 
much  competition  for  it,  and  yet  let  any  dealer 
advertise  for  hands,  even  at  these  pitiful  prices, 
and  he  will  have  hundreds  of  women  applying  for 
work  before  twenty-four  hours  have  passed.  It  seems 
impossible  to  keep  soul  and  body  together  on  such 
a  pittance,  even  by  the  most  active  and  unflag- 
ging industry,  and  yet  we  know  that  not  a  few 
do  manage  to  exist,  we  can  not  say  live,  on  the 


EMPLOYMENTS    OP    WOMEN.  205 

few  pennies  earned  by  incessant  toil.  Poor  crea- 
tures, they  believe  themselves  bound  down  to  this 
single  form  of  industry,  and  their  struggle  to  win 
an  existence  for  themselves  and  their  little  ones 
by  it,  really  rises  to  the  dignity  of  heroism. 

In  this  kind  of  work,  or  rather  in  that  a  grade 
or  two  above  it,  which  would  otherwise  come  into 
the  hands  of  these  poor  toilers,  women  in  the 
country  and  in  towns  adjacent  to  our  large  cities? 
unconsciously  often,  do  their  poor  sisters  of  the 
city  a  great  wrong.  The  stout,  healthy  farmers' 
daughters,  or  the  wives  and  daughters  of  well-to- 
do  mechanics  in  the  country  villages,  rinding  them- 
selves not  fully  employed,  at  some  seasons  of  the 
year,  take  large  quantities  of  this  slop-work  to 
make  up  at  their  homes,  and  board  and  home 
not  being  taken  into  the  account,  they  are  able 
to  make  considerable  additions,  even  at  these 
wretchedly  low  prices,  to  their  spending  money. 
If  they  once  realized  that  every  piece  of  work 
made  up  by  them  not  only  reduced  the  price  paid 
to  the  poor  sewing-woman  in  the  city,  but  often 
deprived  her  of  work,  they  would  turn  their  at- 
tention to  other  and  better  ways  of  earning  a  few 
dollars.  Still,  the  beggarly  price  paid  for  this 
class  of  work  is  in  great  part  due  to  the  fierce 
and  excessive  competition  of  this  great  body  of 
sewing-women  for  work.  The  unskilled  laborer 
is  said  by  political  economists  to  be  the  most 
helpless,  and  the  least  provident  of  all  classes  of 

8*  M 


206  EMPLOYMENTS    OF    WOMEN. 

society ;  yet  even  the  unskilled  female  laborer, 
the  charwoman,  the  cleaner  and  scrubber,  the 
cJiiffonniere  and  the  scavenger,  fare  better  than 
these  half-skilled  sewing-women.  Yet,  if  they 
but  knew  it,  three-fourths  of  them  might  have 
good  homes,  comfortable  food,  beds,  and  air,  and 
fair  wages,  if  they  would  go  into  domestic  service, 
either  in  city  or  country.  The  life  they  are  now 
living  is  more  abject,  involves  infinitely  more  suf- 
fering, and  exposes  them  to  sorer  temptations 
than  they  would  experience  in  service,  and  it  is 
not  counterbalanced  by  any  enjoyment  or  liberty 
which  the  servant-girl  does  not  have. 

The  sewing-machine  has  been,  in  some  aspects 
of  the  case,  a  great  blessing  to  woman;  in  others, 
an  injury.  The  enormous  increase  in  the  amount 
of  needle-work  required  in  this  country  within  the 
past  fifteen  or  twenty  years,  has  rendered  its  use 
indispensable,  and  while  the  number  of  operators 
has  increased,  they  have  been  able  to  earn  much 
better  wages  with  the  sewing-machine  than  they 
ever  could  have  done  without  it.  Skillful  sewing- 
machine  hands,  can,  if  in  full  work,  earn  from 
seven  to  twelve  dollars  a  week,  and  a  few,  possi- 
bly, even  more,  and  they  will  tell  you,  generally, 
that  they  do  not  work  any  harder,  perhaps  not  so 
hard,  as  they  would  have  done  with  the  needle, 
had  there  been  no  sewing-machines. 

But  here  comes  in  the  operation  of  that  law 
which  is  constantly  reminding  woman  of  her 


EMPLOYMENTS    OP    WOMEN.  207 

weaker  physical  nature,  and  which,  in  this  case, 
demonstrates  the  injurious  effect  of  the  sewing- 
machine.  It  has  been  definitely  ascertained,  that 
not  one  woman  in  a  hundred  can  work  steadily  0:1 
the  sewing-machine  for  three  years,  or  four  years 
at  the  furthest,  without  a  complete  prostration 
and  shattering  of  the  nervous  system,  so  severe 
as  to  terminate  either  in  protracted  illness,  help- 
lessness, or  death.  The  higher  wages,  the  greater 
comfort  in  living,  and  the  feeling  of  independence, 
are  purchased  at  a  fearful  cost.  The  improve- 
ments in  the  manufacture  of  the  machine,  securing 
greater  ease  of  motion,  more  speed,  and  less  fre- 
quent delay  from  breaking  the  thread,  imperfect 
tension,  &c.,  may  do  something  toward  protracting 
the  period  in  which  they  can  be  used  by  one 
operator ;  but  the  fact  that,  where  the  machines  are 
driven  by  steam  power,  and  it  is  only  the  sewing 
which  the  girls  are  required  to  direct,  they  break 
down  almost  as  soon,  shows  the  severe  effect  of 
this  kind  of  work  upon  the  delicate  nervous  organ- 
ization of  woman. 

When  we  come,  finally,  to  the  class  of  unskilled, 
or  but  slightly  skilled  female  laborers,  we  find  a 
helpless  class,  indeed,  and  one  more  helpless  from 
the  exposures  and  hardships  of  their  occupations  ; 
in  prosperous  times  earning  a  scanty  and  preca- 
rious livelihood  by  their  toil,  and  in  times  of  busi- 
ness depression,  almost  wholly  without  employ- 
ment ;  yet  this  class,  with  their  lower  intelligence, 


208  EMPLOYMENTS    OF    WOMEN. 

are  less  sensitive  to  the  misery  of  their  position, 
and  accept  alms  without  hesitation,  and  in  the 
cities  and  large  towns  come  to  regard  the  city 
aid  for  the  poor,  or  the  almshouse  itself,  as  their 
natural  refuge,  subsiding  into  it  without  any  feel- 
ing of  degradation,  on  the  approach  of  winter. 
This  ready  acceptance  of  the  pauper's  life  and 
fare  is  not  a  characteristic  of  our  women  of 
American  birth  and  descent.  However  deeply  they 
may  have  sunk  in  poverty,  the  poor-house  is  their 
dread,  and  they  will  often  struggle  almost  till  the 
agonies  of  death  are  upon  them,  to  avoid  so  sad  a 
fate.  But  the  women  of  the  lower  classes  of 
foreign  birth  or  parentage  have  none  of  this  feel- 
ing. To  them,  it  seems  the  most  natural  thing  in 
the  world,  that  if  they  are  not  able  to  support 
themselves,  the  community  should  support  them, 
and  their  easy  confidence  that  it  will,  often  saves 
them  from  much  of  that  sorrow,  which,  to  a  sensi- 
tive heart,  is  almost  unendurable.  The  great 
influx  of  immigrants  from  Europe  has  introduced  a 
very  considerable  number  of  avocations  for  women 
of  the  peasant  classes,  which  are  still,  and  it  is 
hoped  may  always  continue  to  be  (if  they  are  to 
be  followed  by  women  at  all),  practiced  solely  by 
women  of  foreign  birth.  Among  these  are  those 
of  the  chiffonnieres,  or  rag  and  bone-pickers,  scaven- 
gers, swill-gatherers,  collectors  of  broken  victuals, 
hucksters  of  small  wares,  costermongers  or  vege- 
table peddlers,  &c.,  &c.  It  seems  such  a  profana- 


EMPLOYMENTS    OP    WOMEN.  209 

tion,  such  an  outrage  on  all  our  ideas  of  woman,  to 
see  her  engaged  in  such  employments,  that  we 
have  often  turned  away  with  a  shudder,  as  we 
have  seen  some  poor  old  creature  bent  down  under 
her  load  of  bones,  papers,  rags,  and  trash,  and 
exploring  each  box  or  barrel  of  garbage  for  new 
treasures.  We  could  not  imagine  a  countrywoman 
of  ours  engaged  in  such  work. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

THE  dangerous  and  the  criminal  classes,  to 
which  all  writers  on  ethics  assign  the  vicious  and 
depraved  portion  of  all  large  communities,  com- 
prise, in  the  criminal  division,  not  merely  those 
who  have  been  arrested  and  punished  for  crime, 
but  the  bold  villains  who,  though  constantly  prey- 
ing upon  society,  have  as  yet  gone  unwhipped  of 
justice.  Among  the  dangerous  class  are  included 
petty  thieves,  vagrants,  the  uncared-for  children 
of  the  streets,  and  those  of  a  lower  grade — roughs, 
rowdies,  gamblers,  habitual  drunkards,  and  prosti- 
tutes of  all  ranks.  These  persons  are  all  danger- 
ous to  the  well-being  of  society,  because  they 
subsist  on  the  product  of  their  crimes,  or  are  con- 
stantly engaged  in  practices  which  are  hostile  to 
good  order  and  the  interests  of  community. 

It  is  with  but  one  section  of  this  dangerous 
class  that  we  have  to  do  in  this  work.  No  treatise 
on  the  condition  and  rights  and  wrongs  of  women 
would  be  complete,  which  failed  to  consider  the 
condition  of  fallen  women,  and  the  causes  which 
have  led  to  their  ruin.  It  is  a  sad  and  terrible 
thought  that,  taking  not  only  our  great  cities,  but 
our  manufacturing  towns  and  villages,  our  sea-ports 


THE    SOCIAL    EYIL.  211 

• 

and  our  commercial  centers,  of  the  women  between 
the  ages  of  fifteen  and  thirty,  one  out  of  every 
twelve  (some  very  careful  statisticians  say,  one 
out  of  every  ten)  is  a  thing  of  shame.  And  this 
in  an  enlightened,  Christian  nation,  in  the  latter 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  despite  all  our 
efforts  to  promote  purity  and  holiness  !  To  what 
causes  shall  we  attribute  a  state  of  things  so 
deplorable  ?  The  question  is  a  difficult  one,  yet 
it  admits,  we  think,  of  an  answer  which  will  indi- 
cate most  of  the  influences  which  induce  prosti- 
tution. 

We  may  remark  in  the  beginning,  though  that 
is  but  a  small  consolation,  that  this  vice  is  no 
more  prevalent  here,  but  somewhat  less  so,  than 
in  Great  Britain  or  the  continental  States  of 
Europe.  In  some  of  the  continental  States,  espe- 
cially in  the  south  of  Europe,  among  the  lower 
classes,  illicit  love  is  the  rule,  and  chastity  the 
rare  exception.  We  are  not  arrived  at,  we  do 
not  even  approach,  this  depth  of  degradation, 
though  the  great  influx  of  European  immigrants  of 
the  lower  classes  has  had  its  ill  effects  on  the 
families  of  the  poor  in  our  large  cities  and 
manufacturing  towns. 

All  the  testimony,  and  it  is  voluminous,  on  the 
subject,  indicates  that  the  prevalence  of  this  evil 
is  not  due,  to  any  considerable  extent,  to  inordi- 
nate or  uncontrollable  passion  on  the  part  of  the 
sex.  In  the  profligate  and  degenerate  days  of  the 


212  THE    SOCIAL    EVIL. 

later  Roman  empire  this  may  have  been,  as 
Roman  satirists  alleged,  a  cause.  It  certainly  is 
seldom  one  now. 

Yet  the  minds  of  the  young  are  corrupted,  and 
the  barriers  of  virtue  weakened  to  a  greater 
extent  than  most  parents  are  aware,  by  the  circu- 
lation, in  secret,  of  vile  books  and  prints  in  a  large 
proportion  of  our  female  seminaries.* 

But,  aside  from  these  minor  sources  of  evil,  the 
most  prominent  causes  are  not  far  to  seek. 

The  fashionable  mode  of  education  has  much 
to  answer  for  in  this  regard.  Developing  the  love 
of  display  as  the  chief  end  to  be  gained,  teaching 
directly  or  indirectly  the  practice  of  deception, 
imparting  little  or  no  useful  practical  knowledge, 
and  stimulating  the  love  of  admiration  rather  than 
the  love  of  right,  it  fits  the  graduate  to  regard 
self-indulgence,  physical  indolence,  the  love  of 
dress  and  show,  as  the  prime  objects  for  which  a 
woman  should  live,  and  deception  as  perfectly 
justifiable. 


*  We  have  not,  perhaps,  in  the  text,  expressed  so  strongly  as  we 
should,  our  deep  abhorrence  of  this  Satanic  method  of  corrupting  the  youth 
of  both  sexes.  We  have  it  from  undoubted  authority,  that  there  are 
very  few  academies,  female  seminaries,  high  schools,  or  boarding-schoola 
in  the  country,  in  which  these  abominable  books  and  pictures  are 
not  industriously  circulated,  sometimes  by  emissaries  of  the  wretches 
who  publish  them.  Recently  the  publication  of  vile  newspapers,  illus- 
trated with  great  skill,  but  with  the  worst  purposes,  has  been  made  an 
additional  means  of  corrupting  the  young.  That  these  evil  seeds  do 
often  spring  up  and  bear  fruit,  in  the  ruin  of  young  people  of  both 
sexes,  in  soul  and  body,  we  have  abundant  and  distressing  evidence. 


THE    SOCIAL    EVIL.  213 

To  young  women  thus  educated,  when  adverse 
circumstances  have  driven  them  from  the  life  of 
ease  they  had  planned,  the  siren  voice  of  vicious 
pleasure  offers  an  indolent,  easy  life,  ample  oppor- 
tunities for  display  and  costly  apparel,  gems  and 
ornaments  in  profusion,  as  the  price  of  their  virtue. 
Pressed  by  temptation  at  the  very  point  where 
they  are  weakest;  they  yield,  after  a  brief  strug- 
gle, and  enter,  covertly  at  first,  perhaps,  on  a  life 
of  sin. 

The  culture  of  the  intellect,  the  harmonious  de- 
velopment of  its  great  powers,  is  a  boon  to  human- 
ity ;  but  that  education  which  does  not  strengthen 
the  moral  nature,  and  bring  the  conscience  as  well 
as  the  intellect  into  full  activity,  is  a  curse  and  a 
bane  ;  and  it  is  a  question  which  every  parent 
should  ponder,  whether  much  of  the  so-called 
fashionable  education  of  the  day,  does  not  to  all 
intents  and  purposes  ignore  the  moral  nature  of 
the  child. 

•But  while  the  ranks  of  fashionable  vice  are 
largely  recruited  from  these  graduates  of  a  false 
system  of  education,  who,  after  a  brief  and  bitter 
experience  of  the  hollowness  and  wretchedness  of 
a  life  of  sin,  sink  down  to  a  lower  depth  of  degrada- 
tion, and  thus  make  room  for  others  of  their  own 
class  to  enter  upon  the  downward  road,  consider- 
able numbers  are  led  to  begin  a  life  of  shame 
from  other  though  somewhat  similar  motives. 

The  country  girl,  whose  great  ambition  it  has 


214  THE    SOCIAL    EVIL. 

been  to  become  a  resident  of  a  great  city,  and 
who  has  come  thither  on  the  promise  of  employ- 
ment, with  a  fresh,  young,  and  perhaps  handsome 
face,  is  cast  among  associates  of  doubtful  or 
positively  evil  character,  and  if  she  has  a  love  of 
dress  and  display,  and  perhaps,  also,  a  dislike  for 
hard  work,  she  soon  hears,  how  "  a  single  smile 
may  bring  her  better  fare  and  finer  dresses  than  a 
month's  wages,"  and  though,  at  first,  her  soul 
revolts  at  the  thought  of  the  horrible  price  of  such 
finery  and  ease,  yet,  as  the  love  of  dress  urges  its 
claims,  she  begins  to  parley  with  the  temptation, 
which  comes  at  first  in  its  most  innocent  form, 
and  yielding  by  degrees,  she  falls — a  victim,  like 
her  more  fashionable  sister,  to  the  love  of  dis- 
play. 

There  are  some,  doubtless,  though  the  very 
careful  statistics  which  have  been  collected  on 
the  subject  do  not  indicate  that  the  number  is 
large,  who  have  succumbed  to  temptation  under 
the  pressure  of  starvation ;  but  of  those  who  have 
maintained  their  virtue  up  to  this  point,  the 
greater  part,  by  far,  have  nobly  preferred  death 
to  dishonor.  It  is,  we  are  well  aware,  a  common 
occurrence  for  abandoned  women  to  attribute 
their  fall  to  this  cause,  but  their  habitual  untruth- 
fulness  makes  their  statements  less  probable,  and 
the  investigations  made  by  Dr.  Sanger,  Dr.  Ryan, 
and  others,  prove  that  in  many  cases  these  stories 
were  merely  told  for  eifect.  That  in  some  in- 


THE    SOCIAL    EVIL.  215 

stances  a  young  mother  has  sacrificed  herself  to 
procure  food  and  clothing  for  her  child ;  or  daugh- 
ters, to  procure  comforts  for  an  invalid  mother ; 
sisters,  for  a  sick  and  dying  sister,  is  probable  : 
but  if  the  ranks  of  vice  received  no  recruits  but 
such  as  these,  our  great  cities  would  soon  become 
marvels  of  morality. 

Many  are  doubtless  victims  of  the  seducer,  who 
tempts  as  often  by  the  promise  of  luxury  and 
ease,  as  by  the  promise  of  marriage.  Very  many 
lost  women  become  themselves  tempters,  and  lead 
others  to  ruin.  Procuresses  and  publishers  of 
vile  books  have  been  known  in  some  instances  to 
send  young  girls,  already  ruined,  to  fashionable 
boarding-schools  and  female  seminaries,  as  pupils, 
to  infuse  poison  into  the  minds  of  their  associates, 
and  in  more  than  one  instance  those  engaged  in 
this  nefarious  traffic  have  entered  Sabbath-schools, 
procured  situations  as  teachers,  and  used  their 
position  to  'drag  innocent  souls  down  to  perdition. 

This  terrible  evil  does  not  seek  its  victims 
alone  in  the  ranks  of  the  unmarried ;  very  many 
wives,  in  city  and  country,  fall  a  prey  to  the 
tempter,  and  the  houses  of  assignation  which 
abound  in  our  great  cities  offer  a  covert  to  thou- 
sands of  "  silly  women,  laden  with  sins,  led  away 
by  divers  lusts."  The  fatal  facility  of  divorce 
greatly  increases  the  number  of  women  who  lead 
an  abandoned  life  ;  the  boarding  life  in  the  great 
hotels  of  the  city  is  full  of  perils  to  young  wives ; 


216  THE    SOCIAL    EVIL. 

and  those  who  have  been  prompted  by  love  of 
ease  or  dislike  of  care,  to  the  fearful  crime  of  the 
murder  of  their  unborn  babes,  have  already  trodden 
the  downward  road  so  far  that  their  falling  into 
this  sin  also,  is  hardly  matter  of  surprise. 

The  concert-saloons,  dance-houses,  and  low  dens, 
are  largely  supplied  from  young  female  emi- 
grants, who  had  lost  their  virtue  in  their  own 
country,  or  were  ruined,  as  so  many  are,  on  board 
ship.  That  the  supply  from  all  these  sources  is 
not  always  equal  to  the  demand,  appears  from 
the  fact  that  a  noted  New  York  procuress,  last 
year,  advertised  in  an  English  paper  for  fifty 
English  governesses,  for  whom  she  promised  to 
find  situations  on  their  arrival  here,  but  whom 
she  intended  to  use  as  fresh  victims  for  her  dia- 
bolical sacrifices.  Whether  she  was  successful  in 
luring  any  to  ruin  is  not  known.  Horrible  as  is 
every  thing  connected  with  this  loathsome  subject, 
the  worst  remains  to  be  told.  In  our  manu- 
facturing towns  and  cities,  a  large  proportion, 
some  say  a  majority,  of  these  daughters  of  shame 
are  girls  between  the  ages  of  ten  and  fifteen  years  j 
mere  children,  yet  lost  to  virtue,  to  their  families, 
to  society,  to  God. 

The  people  of  Canaan — and  the  Israelites,  at 
some  periods  of  their  history,  following  their  ex- 
ample— passed  their  children  through  the  fire,  in 
the  worship  of  Moloch — but  what  were  the  tor- 
tures they  endured  in  the  arms  of  that  red-hot, 


THE    SOCIAL    EVIL.  217 

brazen  image,  to  the  writhings  of  these  lost  souls 
in  the  agonies  of  the  world  of  woe  ? 

It  has  long  been  a  question  with  the  moralists, 
whether  the  course  pursued  by  virtuous  women 
toward  these  erring,  fallen  ones,  was  in  accordance 
with  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel.  Other  sinners, 
great  criminals  even,  if  they  repent,  are  forgiven, 
and,  on  evidence  of  their  full  reformation,  are 
often  restored  to  society  and  to  the  privileges 
they  had  forfeited  by  their  misconduct ;  but  to  the 
fallen  woman,  until  recently,  there  was,  in  the  view 
of  women,  no  place  of  repentance  or  forgiveness, 
neither  in  this  life  nor  in  the  life  to  come.  Her 
doom  was  sealed. 

In  defense  of  this  course  on  the  part  of  virtuous 
women,  it  was  urged  that  the  sin  against  chastity 
was  a  graver,  deeper  sin,  than  any  other;  that  the 
white  robe  of  innocence  once  soiled,  could  never 
again  be  restored  to  its  former  purity ;  that  the 
stain  was  too  deep  ever  to  be  effaced. 

It  was  claimed,  also,  that  womanly  purity  was  so 
delicate  a  thing,  that  the  slightest  breath  would 
injure  it ;  that  any  contact  with  the  impure,  even 
for  purposes  of  mercy,  marred  its  immaculate 
whiteness  ;  and  that  there  was  no  safety  for  wo- 
man, however  pure  and  holy,  but  in  shunning  all 
manifestations  of  sympathy  or  pity  for  the  fallen. 

To  such  an  extent  has  this  view  been  maintain- 
ed, that  a  mother  has  been  known  to  drive  from 
her  door  a  once  beloved  daughter,  who,  penitent 


218  THE   SOCIAL    EVIL. 

and  perishing,  came  to  seek  forgiveness  and  hope 
from  the  mother  that  bare  her;  sisters,  to  turn 
coldly  and  haughtily  from  a  sister  once  dear,  who 
implored  them,  for  Christ's  sake,  to  hear  and  help 
her  ;  and  even  a  daughter  has  been  taught  to  shun 
a  mother  who  had  once  cherished  her  tenderly, 
but  who  had  since  sinned  and  repented. 

But  is  the  purity  of  a  virtuous  woman  so  much 
more  spotless  and  precious  than  that  of  the  Divine 
Redeemer,  that  she  should  hesitate,  for  fear  of 
soiling  her  purity,  to  follow  where  He  has  led  the 
way  ? 

To  Him  "the  woman  of  the  city,  that  was  a 
sinner,"  but  who  sought  with  deep,  penitential 
sorrow,  relief  from  the  burden  which  crushed  her, 
did  not  apply  in  vain  for  pardon  ;  and  while  proud 
Pharisees  and  scornful  Sadducees  turned  away  in 
contempt,  and  with  bitter  hatred,  from  these 
daughters  of  shame,  who  were,  perhaps,  after  all, 
no  greater  sinners  than  themselves,  He  declared, 
in  "  words  such  as  never  man  spake,"  to  the 
truly  penitent,  that  their  sins  were  forgiven.  It  is 
matter  of  rejoicing  that  so  many  women  of  the 
highest  character  and  the  most  unsullied  reputa- 
tion, have  of  late,  both  in  Great  Britain  and  J;he 
United  States,  sought  to  rescue  their  fallen  sisters 
in  the  spirit  and  temper  of  their  Divine  Master. 
Abhorring  the  sin,  they  are  yet  tender  and  kindly 
pitiful  toward  the  repenting  sinner  ;  and  their  suc- 
cess has  been  in  proportion  to  their  zealous  and 


THE    SOCIAL    EVIL.  219 

patient  labors.  More  than  two  thousand  of  this  class, 
hitherto  considered  so  utterly  hopeless,  have  been 
reclaimed  and  restored  to  society  within  five  years 
past.  To  them  the  dark  and  sinful  past  will  ever  be 
a  bitter  remembrance,  and  its  shadows  will  darken, 
as  its  impurity  has  fouled,  the  sweet,  bright  cur- 
rent of  an  innocent  and  joyous  life  ;  but  they  are 
no  longer  tempters  to  sin,  but,  having  themselves 
suffered,  seek  to  pluck  others  from  the  fire ;  and, 
in  many  cases,  their  humble,  penitent  life  has 
restored  them  fully  to  the  confidence  and  friend- 
ship of  their  sex. 

In  some  cases,  as  in  the  midnight  meetings,  and 
occasionally  in  the  management  of  the  Magdalen 
asylums,  good  men  have  participated  in  this  work; 
but,  for  the  most  part,  women  have  achieved  the 
greatest  success  in  it. 

Asylums  for  the  reformation  of  abandoned  women 
are  not,  it  is  true,  a  new  thing  ;  they  have  existed 
in  Europe  for  two  hundred  years  or  more,  and  in 
the  United  States  for  forty,  but  have  not  generally 
appealed  so  directly  to  the  hearts  and  sympathies 
of  the  fallen  women,  as  to  bring  many  of  them  to 
repentance  and  thorough  reformation.  The  asy- 
Uim  has  been,  to  some  extent,  a  prison  ;  the  treat- 
ment, formal,  stern,  and  forbidding,  and  the  poor 
women,  instead  of  being  encouraged  to  banish 
from  their  minds  all  recollection  of  their  life  of 
shame  (to  which  no  allusion  should  be  allowed), 
and  exhorted  to  begin,  in  humble  trust  in  a 


220  THE    SOCIAL    EVIL. 

Saviour's  love,  a  new  life,  were  daily  reminded 
what  terrible  sinners  they  had  been,  and  what 
mercies  they  enjoyed,  in  being  permitted,  vile  as 
they  were,  to  be  under  the  care  of  those  who 
were  so  much  holier  and  purer  than  they  could 
ever  hope  to  be. 

This  was,  in  many  instances,  the  old  system, 
and  there  need  be  no  wonder  that  it  very  gener- 
ally failed.  The  design  of  the  managers  was  good, 
but  they  approached  their  work  in  too  Pharisaic  a 
spirit,  and  in  utter  ignorance  of  the  laws  which 
govern  mental  and  moral  action.  The  constant 
reminding  of  a  sinner  of  his  misdeeds,  and  their 
heinousness,  will  either  depress  unduly,  or  harden 
the  partially  penitent  offender ;  and  the  contrast 
drawn  between  the  impurity  of  these  poor  fallen 
women,  and  the  immaculate  virtue  of  those  around 
them,  could  only  breed  a  feeling  of  despair  on 
their  part ;  while  the  reflection  on  their  past  life, 
under  these  depressing  circumstances)  would  tend 
only  to  recall  its  fleeting  pleasures,  and  tempt 
them,  viewing  themselves  as  irrecoverably  lost,  to 
return  to  the  life  they  had  struggled  to  abandon. 
Very  painful  is  it  to  read  in  the  annual  reports 
of  many  of  the  old  Magdalen  asylums,  that  so 
many — often  nearly  one-half — of  those  discharged 
as  reformed,  had  returned  to  their  evil  courses 
again. 

Very  different,  and  very  much  wiser,  is  the 
course  now  pursued  in  the  reformation  of  the  fallen. 


THE    SOCIAL  EVIL.  221 

The  door  of  the  "Home" — expressive  word,  as 
indicative  of  the  changed  method  of  treatment, — 
as  it  closes  between  them  and  the  street,  shuts  out 
their  past  life  of  sin,  to  which  no  reference  is 
ever  made,  and  they  are  treated  just  as  other 
young  women  needing  employment  and  mental 
and  moral  training  would  be ;  employment  is  fur- 
nished them  as  soon  as  they  are  able  to  undertake 
it,  and  while  they  are  made  to  feel  that  every 
thing  around  them  is  pleasant,  and  breathes  the 
spirit  of  love  and  kindness,  they  are  yet 
taught  that  labor,  and  often  protracted  and  weari. 
some  labor,  is  the  prerequisite  to  an  honest  life. 
Every  thing  which  can  recall  the  incidents,  the 
gayeties,  or  the  terrible  wretchedness  of  their  past 
life,  is  carefully  kept  out  of  their  way.  Kindly, 
sisterly  advice  is  given  in  regard  to  their  reading, 
during  the  time  they  have  for  that  purpose,  and 
no  harbor  is  given  to  sensational  stories,  either  in 
newspapers  or  books.  The  efforts  to  bring  them 
under  the  influence  of  religious  principles  are  not 
made  in  any  Pharisaic  way,  but  the  kindly  voice 
of  a  sister  speaks  of  the  love  of  Christ,  of  his 
compassion  and  tenderness,  and  gently  leads  tha 
erring  one  to  trust  in  a  Friend  so  sympathizing 
yet  so  powerful.  The  women  thus  reformed  do 
not  relapse  into  evil  ways. 

And  yet  it  must  be  acknowledged  that,  of  all 
classes  needing  reformation,  abandoned  women  are 
the  most  difficult  to  be  successfully  reached  and 


222  THE  SOCIAL  EVIL. 

permanently  benefited.  The  difficulty  exists,  to 
a  great  extent,  in  the  mental  and  moral  charac- 
teristics of  the  women  themselves.  Some  of 
them  have  been  brought  up  from  infancy  in  an 
atmosphere  of  vice ;  they  have  never  known  what 
purity  was ;  and  their  whole  thoughts,  and  the 
language  they  use,  have  become  so  depraved,  that 
even  the  most  harmless  words  have  to  them  an 
evil  suggestiveness.  For  this  class,  there  is  a 
complete  renovation  of  the  entire  mental  as  well  as 
moral  faculties  necessary ;  and  they  are  so  utterly 
devoid  of  truthfulness  that  it  is  very  difficult  to 
ascertain  when  they  are  really  changed. 

But  the  greater  part  of  these  women  are  girls 
whose  vanity  and  love  of  dress  and  display, 
indolence  and  giddiness,  have  been  their  ruin. 
Generally  in  these,  there  is  no  fixedness  of  pur- 
pose, no  perseverance  ;  they  are  impulsive,  and 
while  the  fit  of  disgust  at  their  former  life  is  on 
them,  they  resolve  to  reform,  and  continue  in 
their  purpose,  till  some  temptation,  or  some 
refluent  wave  of  remembrance  of  their  old  career, 
carries  them  off  again  into  the  vortex  of  destruc- 
tion. Very  few  of  these  have  the  moral  courage 
necessary  to  enter  upon  and  steadfastly  pursue  a 
new  life.  The  almost  universal  practice  of  indul- 
gence in  intoxicating  liquors,  which  these  women 
say  they  find  indispensable  to  drown  recollection 
of  their  happier  past,  is  also  a  powerful  obstacle 
to  their  reformation. 


THE  SOCIAL  EVIL. 

Those  emissaries  of  Satan,  the  procuresses,  are 
ever  on  the  alert  to  draw  back  to  perdition  those 
women  who  are  struggling  up  out  of  the  depths 
to  life  and  hope,  and  evil  men  are  ready  to  help 
them.  As  a  general  rule,  therefore,  these  reform- 
ed women  are  safest  when  far  away  from  the 
scene  of  their  temptation  and  fall,  and  amid  the 
quiet  and  retirement  of  the  country ;  but,  alas ! 
the  country  is  none  too  pure,  and  the  Serpent 
who  tempted  our  first  mother,  amid  the  beauty 
and  glory  of  Eden,  has  his  representatives  even 
amid  the  fair  landscapes  of  the  country,  and  the 
quiet  and  peace  of  rural  homes  ;  and  finding  there 
the  dove,  whose  plumage  has  once  been  soiled, 
and  whose  wings  are  drooping,  they  pounce  upon 
it,  and  too  often  lure  it  back  to  sure  destruction. 

It  is  not  within  the  power  of  human  legislation 
to  change  the  human  heart,  or  to  suppress  the 
fires  of  passion  and  sin  in  the  minds  of  the  de- 
praved ;  but  much  might  be  done  by  judicious 
legislation  to  diminish  the  carnival  of  hist,  which 
threatens  to  destroy  our  nation.  The  existing 
laws  against  the  publication  and  sale  of  vile  books, 
prints,  newspapers,  jewelry,  &c.,  might  be  en- 
forced more  rigidly,  and  the  great  sources,  as  well 
as  the  tributary  rills  of  this  villainy,  be  broken  up  ; 
the  acting  of  obscene  plays,  whether  in  opera, 
opera  bouffe,  or  the  ordinary  drama,  prohibited ; 
other  laws  might  be  enacted,  making  the  keeping 
of  a  house  of  ilkfame  or  assignation  a  felony,  pun- 


224  THE  SOCIAL  EVIL. 

ishable  both  by  fine  and  imprisonment ;  punishing 
the  leasing  or  selling  a  house  or  furniture  for 
such  purposes  by  fine  and  forfeiture ;  punishing 
seduction,  especially  of  girls  under  twenty-one 
years  of  age,  with  great  severity,  and  making  the 
finding  of  girls  under  eighteen  years  old  in  these 
houses  prima  facie  evidence  of  their  abduction,  and 
so  punishable  by  fine  and  imprisonment.  Such 
statutes  as  these  could  be  enforced  even  in  our 
largest  cities,  for  this  foul  and  loathsome  disease 
on  the  body  politic,  this  so-called  "  social  evil," 
is  making  its  blighting  influence  felt  in  all  ways 
upon  the  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  life  of 
our  people,  and  it  must  be  crushed  out,  or  it  will 
bring  upon  us  swift  and  sure  destruction  as  a 
nation. 

After  legislation  and  the  vigorous  a-dministra- 
tion  of  the  law  has  done  all  it  can  to  suppress 
this  vice,  there  will  still  remain  enough  of  evil 
•which  the  law  can  not  reach,  to  give  ample  em- 
ployment to  most  devoted  reformers,  and  to  make 
the  prospect  of  a  millennium  remote. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

THE  rapid  review  we  have  given  of  occupations 
now  open  to  women,  will,  we  think,  convince  any 
candid  mind,  that  whatever  may  have  been  the 
case  in  the  past,  there  is  now  no  lack  of  employ- 
ments for  women,  and  that  in  one  or  other  of 
them,  a  single  woman  (either  unmarried  or  widow) 
of  good  health  and  fair  intelligence,  should  find 
no  serious  difficulty,  if  she  is  industrious,  in 
earning  a  livelihood. 

There  is  this  difference  to  be  noticed  between 
most  of  the  employments  of  men,  and  the  greater 
part  of  those  of  women,  that  the  former  require  a 
longer  and  closer  apprenticeship  than  the  latter, 
and  hence  that  there  is  greater  difficulty  in  a 
man's  changing  his  business,  than  in  a  woman's 
entering  upon  a  different  employment.  A  man 
who  has  learned  the  trade  of  a  mason,  finds  it 
difficult,  if  not  impossible,  when  work  is  dull  in 
his  trade,  and  he  can  not  find  an  engagement,  to 
take  up  the  business  of  a  house-joiner,  a  black- 
smith, or  a  tailor.  But  a  woman  who  has  been 
an  operative,  for  instance,  in  a  hoop-skirt  factory, 
can,  with  but  slight  training,  find  employment 
equally  profitable  in  the  manufacture  of  under- 


226        LOW  WAGES  AND  THEIR   REMEDY. 

garments,  in  a  ready-made  clothing  establishment, 
or  in  a  printing-office  as  press-feeder.  This  is  not 
due  so  much  to  the  greater  facility  of  adaptation 
of  women  to  varied  occupations,  as  to  a  certain 
family  resemblance,  which  very  many  of  the  occu- 
pations of  women  have  to  each  other. 

There  ought  not  to  be  so  much  difficulty  in  find- 
ing employment  for  all  women  whose  circum- 
stances require  it,  as  for  men,  for  another  rea- 
son :  if  we  deduct  boys  under  fifteen,  and  old 
men  too  infirm  for  work,  nine-tenths  of  the  remain- 
der of  the  males  in  any  community  have,  or  require 
some  employment,  some  business  which  they 
follow  with  considerable  regularity,  and  on 
which  they  place  more  or  less  dependence  for  a 
livelihood. 

In  the  case  of  women,  after  deducting  the  two 
classes  named,  girls  under  fifteen  and  old  women 
too  feeble  to  labor,  we  must  deduct  also  the  great 
body  of  married  women,  whose  employment,  with 
occasional  exceptions,  is  the  care  of  their  families 
and  households,  and  that  other  very  considerable 
class  who  scorn  all  labor  or  toil  except  that  of 
dressing  themselves  for  public  inspection,  and 
walking,  riding,  or  shopping.  Leaving  these  two 
classes  out  of  the  account,  and  we  find  not  more 
than  forty  per  cent,  at  the  utmost,  of  women  of 
adult  age  requiring  employment. 

In  the  more  than  one  hundred  distinct  occupa- 
tions in  which  women  have  engaged  in  this  coun- 


LOW   WAGES  AND  THEIR    REMEDY.        227 

try  with  success,  there  certainly  should  be,  and 
there  is,  a  sufficiency  of  employment  for  the  com- 
paratively small  number  who  need  it,  and  in  one 
or  other  of  these  so  readily  interchangeable,  there 
ought  to  be  no  difficulty,  in  almost  any  season,  in 
an  intelligent  woman,  in  tolerable  health,  finding 
business ;  while  men,  in  many  of  the  mechanical 
trades,  are  very  much  at  the  mercy  of  the  finan- 
cial condition  of  the  country.  When  money  is 
scarce,  business  dull,  and  materials  high,  the 
builder  will  not  erect  houses,  and,  consequently, 
the  mason,  the  joiner,  the  painter,  and  the  plumb- 
er, are  thrown  out  of  employ ;  when  the  publisher 
finds  no  demand  for  his  books,  and  hence  sus- 
pends publishing,  the  papermaker,  the  compositor, 
the  pressman,  the  bookbinder,  and  the  packer, 
are  out  of  work.  These  vicissitudes  of  trade  do 
not  so  much  affect  the  employments  of  women. 

"  But,"  the  ultra  advocates  of  women's  rights 
reply,  "  all  this  talk  of  what  ought  to  be,  does  not 
alter  what  is.  Everybody  knows,  or  may  know, 
that  every  year  many  thousands  of  women  in  our 
great  cities  are  reduced  to  the  verge  of  starvation 
for  the  want  of  remunerative  employment.  What 
will  you  do  with  that  fact  ?"  Softly,  fair  friends. 
Your  "  many  thousands,"  under  the  careful  and 
rigid  scrutiny  of  the  visitors  of  the  associations 
for  improving  the  condition  of  the  poor,  and  the 
city  authorities,  dwindle  to  a  few  hundreds,  and 
of  these  the  greater  part  lack  employment  for  one 


228        LOW  WAGES  AND  THEIR  REMEDY. 

of  two  reasons  :  either  that  they  are  in  too  feeble 
health  to  be  able  to  work,  or  that  they  are  too 
indolent  or  weak-minded  to  desire  it. 

Infirm  health  is  a  great  misfortune,  especially 
to  the  poor,  who  must  depend  upon  their  labor  for 
their  daily  bread.  It  is  bad  enough  when  the 
father  of  a  family  is  prevented  by  illness  from 
earning  the  means  of  supporting  his  family;  it 
is  worse  when  the  poor  widow  is  afflicted  by  it, 
and  can  not  do  work  enough  to  supply  with  food 
and  clothing  the  little  ones  whose  only  earthly 
resource  she  is.  For  all  such,  we  feel  the  profound- 
est  sympathy,  and  would  willingly  extend  to  them 
our  aid,  as  far  as  possible. 

But  the  laws  of  trade  are  inexorable.  If  man 
or  woman  is  too  ill  to  do  the  work  they  are  accus- 
tomed to  do,  the  work  must  be  done,  and,  except  in 
rare  instances,  the  pay  received,  by  those  who  are 
able  to  do  it.  So  obvious  a  law  of  political  econ- 
omy as  this  can  not  be  subverted,  however  hardly 
it  may  bear  on  the  infirm.  For  them,  some  other 
provision  must  be,  and  generally  is,  made. 

Take  the  other  class,  those  who  are  in  sufficiently 
good  health  to  be  able  to  work,  but  who,  neverthe- 
less, fail  to  find  employment.  We  have  said,  that 
in  most  cases,  this  failure  was  the  result  of  indo- 
lence or  weak-mindedness.  This  may  seem  to  be 
censorious,  but  it  is  true.  At  four  different  peri- 
ods, within  the  past  twelve  years,  benevolent 
persons,  connected  with  either  the  public  or  pri- 


LOW  WAGES  AND    THEIR   REMEDY.        £29 

vate  charities  of  New  York  City,  roused  to  anxious 
concern  for  the  welfare  of  the  unemployed  poor, 
and  especially  of  unemployed  poor  women,  by  the 
statements  made  in  the  public  prints  concerning 
their  sufferings,  have  attempted  extraordinary 
measures  for  their  relief.  In  each  case  there  has 
been  no  lack  of  funds  to  carry  out  any  desirable 
measure  of  relief;  for  the  citizens  of  New  York 
do  not  lack  a  charitable  spirit. 

The  complaint  made  was,  in  each  case,  that 
they  could  not  find  work ;  that  they  were 
willing  to  do  any  thing,  and  to  go  anywhere, 
if  they  could  find  employment  which  would  sus- 
tain life.  The  first  instance  to  which  we  refer 
occurred  in  the  autumn  and  winter  of  1857,  after, 
the  terrible  financial  panic  of  that  year. 

Several  of  the  charitable  organizations  of  the 
city,  deeply  impressed  with  the  apparent  suffering 
of  the  season,  and  finding  that  employment  in  the 
city  could  not  be  had  for  all,  offered  to  take,  at  the 
cost  of  the  societies,  as  many  single  women  as  de- 
sired to  go  to  the  West,  and  procure  good  situations 
for  them  ;  stipulating,  of  course,  that  they  should 
have  testimonials  of  good  character  from  their 
pastors,  or  other  persons  of  known  respectability. 
Greatly  to  their  surprise,  very  few  applied  for  the 
opportunity  of  going;  and  when  those  who  had 
been  complaining  of  the  want  of  employment  were 
questioned  as  to  their  reasons  for  not  exchanging 
starvation  and  wretchedness  for  comfort,  their 

9* 


230        LOW    WAGES  AND   THEIR   REMEDY. 

reply  uniformly  was,  that  they  thought  they  could 
get  along  somehow ;  they  didn't  want  to  leave  the 
city.  Their  "getting  along  somehow,"  consisted, 
in  most  cases,  in  receiving  pauper-relief  from  one, 
two,  or  three  sources ;  and,  in  some,  unquestionably 
the  wages  of  unrighteousness.  The  few  who  did  go, 
were  hardly  better  than  those  who  stayed.  Most 
of  them,  though  presenting  certificates  of  good 
character,  had  already  fallen,  and,  though  excel- 
lent situations  were  obtained  for  them,  within  six 
months  the  greater  part  were  found  in  brothels  in 
the  Western  cities,  one  of  them  having  actually 
established  a  house  of  ill-fame,  and  employed  sev- 
eral of  those  who  had  gone  West  with  her. 

The  subsequent  experiments  of  1861,  1866,  and 
1869,  were  too  similar  to  need  repetition.  In  all 
instances,  women  bound  by  no  strong  ties  to  New 
York,  and,  according  to  their  own  representation, 
starving  there,  very  generally  refused  to  leave  the 
city  for  comfortable  situations  in  the  country,  and 
very  often  also  refused  situations  in  the  city  or 
its  suburbs,  on  the  frivolous  grounds  that  the 
work  was  too  hard,  or  it  was  too  far  off,  or  that 
they  preferred  a  different  class  of  work.  This 
was  the  result  of  hundreds,  and  in  some  instances 
thousands,  of  applications.  Is  there  not  reason 
to  think  that,  in  these  cases,  either  indolence  or 
weak-mindedness  was  at  the  bottom  of  their  re- 
fusal to  accept  work  ? 

There  are  cases,  doubtless,  of  married  women, 


LOW  WAGES  AND  THEIR  REMEDY.        231 

or  widows  with  small  children,  and,  perhaps,  of 
single  women  who  have  parents  or  young  brothers 
and  sisters  dependent  upon  them,  who  find,  in 
some  seasons,  difficulty  in  obtaining  the  sort  of 
work  which  they  are  capable  of  doing;  but 
these  are,  almost  without  exception,  those  who 
are  unskilled,  or  only  half-skilled  laborers ;  and 
with  these,  as  with  the  same  classes  of  the  other 
sex,  there  must  be  always  periods  when  there  is 
little  or  no  work.  Their  only  resource  is  to  ac- 
quire a  higher  degree  of  skill,  or  sufficient  knowl- 
edge to  enable  them  to  rise  to  a  better  grade  of 
work,  for  which  there  is  always  a  greater  demand 
and  fewer  laborers  to  supply  it. 

It  is  hard  to  say  it,  perhaps,  but  it  is  the  truth, 
that  this  class  of  unskilled  or  but  partially  skilled 
laborers,  of  both  sexes,  owe  their  abject  condition, 
in  great  part,  to  their  own  ignorance,  heedlessness, 
and  unthrift.  It  is  true,  that  sickness,  either  of 
the  bread-winner  himself  (or  herself),  or  of  some 
of  the  family,  may  occasionally  aggravate  their 
misery  ;  but  even  this  is  often  but  another  result 
of  their  thriftlessness.  It  is  really  but  little 
harder  for  a  young  man  or  young  woman  to 
acquire  a  trade  or  learn  a  business  which  will  give 
them  a  good  livelihood,  and  in  which  their  ser- 
vices will  always  be  in  demand,  than  to  jog  on, 
doing  the  lowest  kind  of  drudgery,  and  receiving 
the  very  lowest  wages,  even  in  prosperous  times, 
because  of  the  competition  which  is  fiercest  in  the 


232        LOW  WAGES  AND  THEIR  REMEDY. 

lowest  kinds  of  work,  from  the  great  numbers  who 
do  not  know  how  to  do  any  other ;  in  dull  times, 
the  competition  grows  more  intense,  as  the  work 
is  less  abundant,  since  the  number  of  mouths  to 
be  fed  is  not  diminished,  and  the  scarcity  of  em- 
ployment leads  to  underbidding,  till  wages  are  too 
low  to  sustain  life.  These  very  low  wages  compel 
this  class  of  the  very  poor  to  shelter  themselves 
in  the  closest,  filthiest,  and  most  unhealthy  tene- 
ments that  can  be  found,  because  they  are  unable 
to  pay  the  rent  of  any  better  rooms,  and  often 
they  are  obliged  to  herd  together,  all  ages  and 
both  sexes,  in  a  way  which  a  decent  herd  of  swine 
would  resent.  There  follows  from  this,  sickness, 
physical  prostration,  and  a  moral  degradation 
which  sinks  them  still  lower  in  wretchedness. 

Now,  in  this  condition  of  affairs,  there  is  very 
little  chance  of  improvement.  Legislation  can  do 
nothing  to  improve  it,  for  there  is  no  possibility 
of  regulating  the  price  of  labor  otherwise  than  in 
accordance  with  the  laws  of  supply  and  demand, 
and  any  attempt  at  fixing  a  minimum  price  for  any 
description  of  work,  would  inevitably  result  in 
wide-spread  disaster ;  it  is  impossible  to  increase, 
to  any  considerable  extent,  the  amount  of  work 
which  unskilled  or  partially  skilled  laborers  can 
perform,  in  times  of  financial  depression ;  indis- 
criminate charity  only  defeats  its  own  purpose,  by 
pauperizing  a  large  class,  capable,  ordinarily,  of 
supporting  themselves  in  some  sort,  and  even  th» 


LOW  WAGES  AND    THEIR    REMEDY.        233 

most  skillful  administration  of  relief  increases  so 
enormously  the  number  of  the  dependent  class, 
that  (as  Great  Britain  has  found  of  late)  it 
threatens  to  swamp  all  the  smaller  tax-payers. 
The  multiplication  of  lodging-houses,  and  good, 
but  low-priced  tenements  for  the  poor,  which  has 
been  attempted  on  a  large  scale  in  London,  and  to 
some  extent,  in  Boston,  New  York,  and  Philadel- 
phia, benefits  a  class  of  the  poor,  but  not  this  class  ; 
the  lower  grades  of  the  skilled  laboring  classes, 
not  having  lost  all  ambition,  secure  these  tene- 
ments, and  gradually  begin  to  better  their  condi- 
tion ;  but  this  class  will  continue  to  occupy  their 
miserable  kennels,  even  at  the  same  rent  which 
the  others  pay ;  or  if,  which  is  very  rarely  the 
case,  they  do  occupy  one  of  these  better  tene- 
ments for  a  little  time,  they  soon  render  the  rest 
uninhabitable  by  their  untidy  and  degrading 
habits,  and  their  morbid  dread  of  cleanliness  and 
pure  air. 

There  seems  to  be  no  resource  for  them,  except 
by  some  process  of  education  arid  reformation,  by 
which  their  capacity  for  a  higher  and  better  paid 
class  of  work  can  be  increased  ;  and  the  greater 
part  of  them,  it  is  to  be  feared,  are  too  old  to 
learn. 

There  is  great  complaint  among  the  ultra-ad- 
vocates of  women's  rights,  of  the  low  rates  of 
wages  and  compensation  for  labor  allowed  to 
women.  Some  of  these  complaints  are  just,  while 


234        LOW  WAGES  AND  THEIR  REMEDY. 

others  are  grossly  unjust.  In  the  lower  grades 
of  skilled  labor,  and  in  all  unskilled  labor,  women's 
wages  have  been,  and  still  are,  much  lower  than 
those  of  men  engaged  in  the  same  classes  of  em- 
ployment. The  discrimination  has  been  greater 
than  it  should  have  been,  but  the  causes  of  it 
were  these  :  that  women  possessed  less  physical 
strength  than  men,  and  consequently  could  not 
perform  as  much,  or  as  severe  labor  in  a  given 
time ;  that  generally  they  were  less  skillful  in 
their  trade  or  business  than  men,  and  consequently 
did  not  do  their  work  so  well ;  that  they  did  not 
give  their  whole  minds  to  their  work,  but  were 
occupied  with  other  thoughts  and  objects,  and 
hence  made  more  blunders,  involving  losses  to 
the  employer ;  that  in  those  kinds  of  work  where 
the  supply  of  labor  was  equal  to,  or  greater  than, 
the  demand  for  it,  women,  for  the  sake  of  pro- 
curing work,  would  underbid  each  other,  and  thus 
reduce  the  price  of  labor  by  a  disastrous  competi- 
tion; and  finally,  that  those  employers  who  offered 
the  lowest  prices  had  the  most  applications  from 
working-women,  and,  owing  to  the  low  prices  they 
paid  for  work,  could  undersell  their  competitors 
in  the  market,  who  paid  better  prices  to  their 
employes.  That  some  of  these  reasons  indicate 
hardness  and  lack  of  sympathy  on  the  part  of 
some  employers  is  undoubtedly  true  ;  but  we  must 
take  men  as  we  find  them,  and  must  remember 
that  all  trade  and  business  is  governed  by  certain 


LOW  "WAGES  AND  THEIR  REMEDY.         235 

absolute  laws,  and  that  one  of  the  most  inexorable 
of  these  is,  that  where  the  supply  of  any  thing 
(labor  as  well  as  any  thing  else)  equals  or  ex- 
ceeds the  demand,  the  lowest  price  at  which  it  is 
offered  will,  other  things  being  equal,  be  the  ruling 
price. 

Yet,  except  in  the  case  of  unskilled  or  partially 
skilled  labor,  the  women  have  the  remedy  for 
this  in  their  own  hands.  In  most  descriptions 
of  manual  labor,  a  woman's  work  is  not  worth 
quite  as  much  as  a  man's  would  be,  where  the 
payment  is  to  be  made  by  the  day  or  the  week, 
for  the  same  reason  that  a  boy's  work,  though  it 
may  be  as  well  done,  is  not  worth  as  much,  viz. : 
because  the  greater  part  of  this  manual  labor  re- 
quires, for  the  accomplishment  of  the  greatest 
amount  in  a  given  time,  greater  physical  strength 
than  either  the  boy  or  the  woman  possess.  Where 
the  work  can  be  done  by  the  piece,  if  it  is  as  well 
done,  it  should  receive  the  same  pay.  The  same 
rule  should  apply  to  clerkships  and  the  like  em- 
ployments ;  where  the  work  performed  is  the  same, 
and  as  well  done  by  one  sex  as  the  other,  the  pay 
should,  in  justice,  be  the  same.  Inasmuch, 
however,  as  there  exists  in  the  minds  of  many 
employers  a  prejudice  (unfounded,  we  admit) 
against  the  employment  of  women  in  places  of 
trust  and  confidence,  it  is  worthy  of  a  question 
whether  some  slight  concession  in  salary,  suf- 
ficient to  turn  the  scale  and  secure  them  the 


236  LOW  WAGES  AND  THEIR  REMEDY. 

position,  might  not  be  advisable,  at  first,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  policy. 

The  remedy  which  we  would  have  women  em- 
ploy to  prevent  the  reduction  of  the  wages  of 
skilled  working-women,  is  that  which  male  me- 
chanics have  tried  with  such  success  for  a  few 
years  past — that  of  trades-unions  or  associations, 
which  should  regulate  the  prices  to  be  required 
for  work  in  their  several  employments,  and  provide 
for  the  support  of  those  thrown  out  of  employ 
when  it  was  necessary  to  resist  an  attempted  re- 
duction of  wages. 

The  great  obstacles  to  the  increase  of  women's 
wages  have  come  from  themselves  ;  their  ruinous 
competition,  their  underbidding,  and  the  taking  of 
work  at  low  prices  by  women  in  the  country,  to 
occupy  their  spare  time.  Trades-unions  would 
remedy  these  evils  to  a  great  extent,  if  women 
would  unite  in  them  and  be  true  to  each  other. 

Co-operative  societies  and  organizations  might 
also  do  much  for  them,  if  rightly  managed ; 
the  cost  of  food  and  of  clothing,  the  two  great 
items  of  expenditure  among  the  poor;  and  espe- 
cially with  poor  women,  would  be  greatly  reduced 
thereby. 

Finally,  the  material  comfort  of  working-women 
would  be  greatly  promoted  by  the  increase  of 
their  practical  education.  In  the  lower  grades  of 
intelligence  and  skill  there  are  always  crowds  and 
intense  competition;  as  the  working-woman  rises 


LOWWAGES  AND  THEIR  REMEDY.        237 

higher  in  the  scale,  and  becomes  capable  of  bet- 
ter and  more  skillful  work,  the  wages  increase, 
and  the  competition  decreases,  till  at  last  she 
reaches  a  point  where  the  supply  of  labor  is  not 
equal  to  the  demand,  and  can  sell  her  labor  at  her 
own  price.  In  most  of  the  higher  grades  of  em- 
ployment the  salaries  of  women  are  nearly  equal 
to  those  of  men,  especially  if  we  take  into  account 
the  greater  strength,  and  more  uniformly  good 
health  of  men. 

Teaching  is  frequently  spoken  of  as  an  excep- 
tion, and  the  reports  of  the  superintendents  of 
public  schools  in  the  different  States  adduced  as 
proof.  Yet  here  the  difference  is  more  apparent 
than  real.  In  California,  the  wages  of  female 
teachers  average  the  same  as  those  of  male  teach- 
ers. In  several  other  States  they  approximate 
very  nearly ;  and  in  those  States  where  the  differ- 
ence is  considerable,  it  is  usually  due  to  the  fact 
that  women  are  employed,  much  more  largely  than 
men,  in  schools  of  a  low  grade,  or  as  assistants, 
where  the  wages  would  be  lower,  without  refer- 
ence to  sex. 

Wherever  women  competent  to  fill  first-class 
positions  are  employed  in  those  positions,  their 
salaries  are  generally  Equivalent  to  those  paid  to 
men  under  the  same  circumstances.  In  St.  Louis, 
for  instance,  where  a  part  of  the  High  Schools 
have  women  for  principals,  and  the  remainder 
men,  the  salaries  are  the  same  for  each.  The  rule 


238        LOW  WAGES  AND  THEIR  REMEDY. 

in  teaching,  as  in  every  thing  else,  is,  that  first- 
class  qualifications  will  command  first-class  prices. 

In  all  these  employments  it  is  absurd  to  sup- 
pose that  legislation  could  accomplish  any  thing 
in  the  way  of  regulating  the  prices  of  labor,  or  in 
any  way  ameliorating  the  condition  of  working- 
women. 

We  shall  show  presently,  that  the  possession 
of  the  ballot  would  be  equally  ineffectual  in  pro- 
ducing any  such  result.  We  may  add,  now,  that 
even  were  any  considerable  number  of  women  to 
make  politics  a  profession,  those  who  did  so  would 
be  drawn  from  the  intelligent  class,  who  have  no 
difficulty  now  in  obtaining  a  livelihood,  and  not 
from  the  poorer  classes,  who  are  the  only  ones 
who  need  relief,  but  who  do  not  possess  either  the 
education  or  the  skill  to  enter  upon  such  a  career. 
So  far,  then,  as  the  appeal  is  made  to  struggling 
and  oppressed  working-women  to  demand  the  bal- 
lot as  the  panacea  for  all  their  woes,  we  must  de- 
nounce it  as  utterly  unworthy  of  those  who  make 
it,  and,  in  fact,  the  merest  demagogism.  They 
can  not  be  in  any  way  benefited  by  it,  and  the 
leaders  of  this  suffrage  movement  know  it,  01 
should  know  it,  if  they  do  not. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

BEFORE  proceeding  to  consider  the  propriety  of 
conceding  the  suffrage  to  women,  it  may  be  well 
to  devote  a  little  space  to  a  history  of  suffrage, 
its  origin  and  progress  in  past  ages,  and  ascertain 
whether  there  is  an  inherent  right  of  suffrage  in 
any  class  or  body  of  men  or  women. 

In  the  early  ages  of  the  world's  history,  the 
patriarchal  form  of  government,  an  evident  out- 
growth of  the  paternal,  prevailed  universally.  The 
father  of  the  family,  and  in  process  of  time  the 
patriarch  of  the  tribe,  was  the  supreme  authority, 
and  from  his  decision  there  was  no  appeal.  Un- 
der this  form  of  government,  continued  to  this 
day  among  the  pastoral  and  nomadic  tribes  of 
Asia  and  Africa,  there  was  no  thought  of  suf- 
frage, and  no  occasion  for  it.  By  and  by,  when 
cities  and  towns  began  to  be  built,  and  the  nomads 
became  citizens  having  fixed  habitations,  some 
man  possessing  greater  bravery,  mechanical  skill, 
or  power  of  control  than  the  rest,  became  the  king 
of  a  given  territory,  and  the  people,  awed  by  his 
superior  qualities,  gave  him  their  allegiance,  and 
obeyed  his  commands  as  implicitly  as  they  had 
previously  done  those  of  the  patriarch.  In  the 


240  HISTORY  OF   SUFFRAGE. 

case  of  Nimrod,  the  kingly  quality  was  his  ability 
as  a  hunter,  and  very  possibly,  also,  as  a  warrior ; 
in  the  case  of  the  first  Hadad,  king  of  Damas- 
cus, it  was  his  skill  as  a  smith,  the  most  practi- 
cal of  the  arts  of  that  time ;  in  Saul,  his  gigantic 
stature  and  his  regal  bearing. 

These  kings  were  absolute,  as  are  most  of  the 
Oriental  monarchs  to  this  day,  and  the  people  had 
no  means  of  redress  from  any  injustice  of  the 
monarch,  except  by  revolution  or  a  change  of 
dynasty. 

As  the  ages  rolled  on,  the  chief  men  of  some  of 
these  nations  began  to  claim  a  right  of  participa- 
tion in  the  government,  and  finally  obtained  it,  in 
one  way  or  another.  Sometimes  they  formed  a 
council,  or  parliament,  to  which  they  required  the 
king  to  submit  his  more  important  measures,  and 
which  he  could  only  execute  when  a  majority  of 
them  sanctioned  them ;  sometimes  they  only  exer- 
cised an  advisory  power ;  at  others,  they  became 
subordinate  rulers,  and  convened  in  council  at 
long  intervals. 

In  Rome,  the  kingly  power  was  abrogated,  and 
consuls,  chosen  by  the  senate  (the  assembled 
body  of  nobles  or  patricians,  who  were  nominally 
selected  and  appointed  by  the  quaestors),  governed 
under  the  general  title  of  the  Senate  and  People 
of  Rome.  These  patricians  exercised  some  pow- 
ers of  suffrage  in  virtue  of  being  the  governing 
power  of  the  republic  j  but,  really,  they  were 


HISTORY   OP   SUFFRAGE.  241 

only  so  many  kings,  exercising  a  joint  authority. 
Through  all  this  period  of  consular  and  senatorial 
authority,  the  plebeians  had  no  voice  in  the  gov- 
ernment directly,  though  the  tribes,  organizations 
of  the  people,  who  were  invested  under  certain 
restrictions  with  the  right  of  Roman  citizenship, 
voted  for  tribunes,  an  inferior  class  of  officers, 
who  yet  acted  as  checks  on  the  power  of  the 
consuls  and  the  senate.  The  privilege  of  citizen- 
ship, which  conferred  this  limited  right  of  suffrage, 
was  highly  prized ;  and  where  it  had  not  been 
granted  to  a  family  for  services  rendered  to  the 
State,  was  often  purchased  at  a  high  price.  Until 
after  the  Roman  commonwealth  had  begun  to  de- 
cline, even  this  limited  suffrage  was  not  by  any 
means  general  among  the  male  inhabitants.  Great 
numbers  had  never  been  invested  with  the  privi- 
lege of  citizenship  ;  the  slaves,  who  numbered,  at 
times,  as  many  as  five  or  six  to  one  of  the  citizens, 
never  exercised  the  right  of  suffrage,  and  for  many 
years  the  freedmen  (those  who  had  been  slaves 
but  had  been  emancipated),  did  not  share  this 
privilege. 

Under  the  later  emperors,  the  soldiers  were 
actually  the  governing  power ;  they  made  and  de- 
throned the  emperors  at  their  pleasure ;  and  the 
right  of  suffrage,  after  it  was  given  to  the  masses 
of  the  male  population,  was  barren  of  any  good 
influence,  or  any  potential  authority.  They  were 
ignorant,  brutish,  and  careless  of  any  thing  except 


242  HISTORY   OF   SUFFRAGE. 

the  public  distribution  of  food  and  the  excitement 
of  the  public  games  (joanem  et  circenses\  and  they 
voted  en  masse  for  the  demagogue  who  would 
promise  them  these  in  the  greatest  profusion. 
Thus  pauperized  and  demoralized,  the  Roman 
voters  only  hastened  the  ruin  of  the  empire,  by 
their  universal  suffrage,  and  the  voting  places 
were  the  scenes  of  the  most  infamous  crimes  and 
outrages. 

In  some  of  the  Grecian  States,  the  experiment 
of  general  suffrage  had  been  tried,  with  not  much 
greater  success.  The  demos,  i.  e.  the  people,  who 
took  part  in  voting,  never  comprised,  however,  a 
majority  of  the  male  population ;  yet  it  was  a 
fickle,  easily  influenced  mass,  readily  won  to  any 
enormity,  cruelty,  or  injustice,  by  the  artful 
harangues  of  the  unprincipled  aspirants  for  power. 
The  form  of  government  was  almost  constantly 
changing,  and  if  by  any  chance,  a  wise  and  just 
man,  such,  for  example,  as  Aristides,  was  elected 
to  a  high  position,  he  was  speedily  deposed,  by 
the  jealousy  of  the  fickle  populace  who  had  pre- 
viously voted  for  him. 

It  is  not  strange  that,  with  such  examples  be- 
fore them,  the  people  of  Europe,  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  went  back,  with  something  like  contentment, 
to  a  despotic  and  absolute  government ;  and  that 
they  preferred  the  tyranny  of  a  single  ruler,  to 
the  variable  whims  of  an  excitable  and  fickle  pop- 
ulace. 


HISTORY   OF    SUFFRAGE.  243 

The  first  revolt  from  this  was  not  in  the  direc- 
tion of  suffrage,  but  in  the  attempt  of  the  feudal 
barons  to  wrest  from  the  despot  a  portion  of  his 
power;  and  the  necessity,  on  his  part,  for  courting 
what  were  called  then  the  common  people,  but 
were  really  what  we  now  call  the  middle-class ; 
'he  traders,  ship-owners,  and  small  but  independ- 
ent landholders. 

It  was  long  before  any  suffrage  was  thought  of, 
except  that  of  the  nobles,  or  patrician  class,  in 
which  were  included  abbots,  bishops,  who  held 
large  domains,  and  the  higher  clergy.  The  ballot, 
as  a  political  institution  of  modern  times,  was  first 
established,  we  think,  in  Scandinavia,  though  pos- 
sibly some  of  the  cantons  of  Switzerland  might 
have  voted  in  the  small  way,  quite  as  early.  In 
Hungary,  it  was  in  use  earlier  than  in  England, 
after  the  Norman  conquest.  Under  the  Saxons 
there  was  an  assembly  of  notables  (the  Witenage- 
mote),  which  was  elected  from  the  freeholders. 
Through  all  the  countries  of  Europe,  however, 
the  principle  has  constantly  prevailed,  that  the 
suffrage  was  only  to  accompany  the  possession  of 
property.  The  argument  has  been,  that  it  was 
only  the  man  who  possessed  property  which  was 
liable  to  taxation,  who  had  any  claim  to  partici- 
pate in  the  election  of  the  representatives  who 
were  to  act  in  voting,  levying,  and  expending  the 
moneys  raised  by  taxation.  In  different  coun- 
tries there  were  differing  views  relative  to  the 


244  HISTORY    OP   SUFFRAGE. 

amount  of  taxable  property  necessary  to  consti- 
tute a  vote;  in  the  Scandinavian  States  it  was 
smaller  than  elsewhere,  but  in  all,  until  recently, 
it  must  be  real  property,  i.  e.  houses  or  lands. 
Within  the  last  forty  years,  in  several  of  the 
European  States,  the  possession  of  personal  prop- 
erty from  which  an  income  is  derived,  or  the  pay- 
ment of  a  certain  amount  of  annual  rent,  varying 
in  different  countries,  and  in  Great  Britain,  in 
town  and  country,  has  been  accepted,  to  some  ex- 
tent, as  a  substitute  for  the  possession  of  raal 
estate. 

There  are  instances  in  all  these  countries,  where 
single  women,  unmarried,  or  widows,  possess  large 
landed  estates.  In  Great  Britain,  these  women, 
possessing  all  the  other  requisite  qualifications  for 
voters,  except  sex,  have,  in  some  instances, 
claimed  the  right  to  vote,  or,  as  was  the  case  two 
or  three  years  since,  petitioned  Parliament  to  de- 
clare their  right  to  the  ballot.  That,  in  a  few 
instances,  during  several  centuries  past,  women 
have  voted  on  this  ground  is  certain,  but  Parlia- 
ment declined  to  sanction  their  use  of  the  suffrage, 
although  their  petition  was  respectfully  received. 

From  the  English  point  of  view,  we  must  con- 
fess that  it  is  somewhat  surprising  that  it  should 
have  been  refused.  They  had  the  qualifications 
of  voters,  and  it  could  hardly  be  claimed  that 
their  property  was  fairly  represented  in  Parlia- 
ment by  the  votes  of  those  of  their  male  relatives 


HISTORY   OF  SUFFRAGE.  245 

who  might,  or  might  not  have  a  contingent  inter- 
est in  it ;  and  voting  in  England  did  not  necessa- 
rily require  personal  attendance  at  the  polls,  or  at 
least,  provision  could  have  been  made  to  avoid 
this,  in  the  case  of  the  limited  number  of  female 
voters  who  would,  at  that  time,  have  come  under 
the  provisions  of  the  Reform  law  of  1832. 

There  must  have  been,  in  the  minds  of  the 
British  legislators,  some  reasons  why  they  believ- 
ed the  privilege  of  voting  on  the  property  they 
possessed  would  be  fraught  with  evils  to  these 
women,  which 'would  more  than  counterbalance 
any  benefits  which  might  be  derivable  from  it  to 
their  property. 

That  these  reasons  existed  also  in  other  minds 
we  know  from  the  fact  that  there  has  been, 
and  still  is  in  England,  a  wide-spread  feeling  of 
dislike  to  the  exercise  of  the  suffrage  by  women, 
on  the  part  of  some  of  the  most  accomplished  and 
intellectual  women  of  the  nation. 

The  author  of  "  Woman's  Rights  and  Duties,"  * 
herself  a  woman  of  high  social  position,  and  the 
most  thorough  culture,  says,  vol.  I.,  page  390,  of 
her  work  on  this  subject : — 

"  A  question  has  occasionally  been  raised,  and  I 
believe  by  more  than  one  writer,  whether  the  right 
of  voting  be  not  unjustly  withheld  from  women. 

*  "  Woman's   Rights  and  Duties  considered  with  Relation  to  their 
Influence  on  Society,   and    on  her  own  Condition."    By  a    Womaa 
In  two  volumes.    London:  John  W.  Parker.    1840. 
10 


246  HISTORY    OF    SUFFRAGE. 

But  it  seems  an  almost  conclusive  objection  to  giv- 
ing them  the  franchise,  that  by  the  very  principle 
upon  which  it  is  bestowed,  women  are  unfit  for 
it,  being  always  under  influence.  There  are,  no 
doubt,  some  cases  of  exception  to  that  rule,  but  so 
there  are  to  every  other  rule,  by  which  persons  are 
excluded  from  the  right.  Perhaps  no  other  rule  is 
so  extensively  true,  as  that  women  are  under  in- 
fluence. But  further,  women  have  no  political 
interests  apart  from  those  of  men.  The  public 
measures  that  are  taken,  the  restriction  or  taxes 
imposed  on  the  community,  do  not  affect  them 
more  than  male  subjects.  In  all  such  respects, 
the  interests  of  the  two  sexes  are  identified.  As 
citizens,  therefore,  they  are  sufficiently  repre- 
sented already.  To  give  them  the  franchise  would 
just  double  the  number  of  voters,  without  intro- 
ducing any  new  interest ;  and  far  from  improving 
society,  few  things  would  tend  more  to  dissever 
and  corrupt  it. 

"  But  the  disabilities  or  oppressions  to  which 
they  are  subject  as  women,  could  not  be  in  any 
degree  remedied  by  possessing  the  franchise.  In- 
terests of  that  description  being  exclusively 
female,  would  come  into  collision,  not,  as  in  other 
cases,  with-  the  interests  of  a  class  or  a  party, 
but  with  those  of  the  whole  male  sex ;  and  one 
of  two  things  would  happen.  Either  one  sex 
would  be  arrayed  in  a  sort  of  general  hostility  to 
the  other,  or  they  would  be  divided  among 


HISTORY   OF   SUFFRAGE.  247 

themselves.  Than  the  first,  nothing  could  possi- 
bly be  devised  more  disastrous  to  the  condition 
of  women.  They  would  be  utterly  crushed ;  the 
old  prejudices  would  be  revived  against  their 
education,  or  their  meddling  with  any  thing  but 
household  duties.  Every  man  of  mature  age 
would  probably  stipulate,  on  marrying,  that  his 
wife  should  forswear  the  use  of  the  franchise, 
and  all  ideas  connected  with  political  influence,  or 
the  coarse  and  degrading  contentions  of  the  elec- 
tions. 

"  If  each  sex  were  divided  among  themselves  on 
particular  questions,  unprincipled  men  would  en- 
deavor to  secure  their  election  by  creating  female 
parties.  Men  of  such  character  now  disguise 
their  personal  interests,  by  affecting  to  adopt 
some  measure  popular  with  the  mob,  or  suited 
only  to  the  partial  interests  of  some  locality. 
They  do  not  always  desire  to  forward  such  meas- 
ures ;  but  they  delude  and  corrupt  the  people  by 
using  them  as  pretexts.  If  women  had  the  fran- 
chise, men  would  address  themselves  to  the  worst 
part  of  the  sex,  the4  most  clamorous,  and  those 
least  restrained  by  female  decorum.  The  pre- 
texts made  use  of  to  delude  them  would  proba- 
bly be  injudicious,  as  measures,  and  condemned 
by  the  informed  and  reflecting  of  their  own 
sex. 

"  It  has  been  maintained  throughout  this  work, 
that  the  interests  of  women  can  be  served  chiefly 


248  HISTORY   OF   SUFFRAGE. 

through  opinion,  though  without  denying  that 
some  legal  enactments  might  also  be  required  for 
certain  special  hardships.  Can  it  be  seriously 
imagined  by  any  dispassionate  woman,  that  those 
legal  changes  could  be  as  well  brought  about  by 
the  power  of  now  and  then  forcing  an  advocate 
into  the  legislature,  as  by  their  general  influence 
in  society,  won  through  their  own  moral  and 
mental  deserts,  and  identified  in  men's  minds  with 
the  influence  which  justice  must  always  retain 
over  their  feelings  ? 

"  Conducted  as  elections  now  are — scenes  of 
violence  and  tumult — women  would  be  subject  to 
every  species  of  insult.  It  may  be  imagined  that 
a  remedy  might  be  found  for  that ;  but  what  rem- 
edy would  be  found  for  the  inflictions  no  law 
could  reach  or  define,  and  which  thev  would  suf- 

•/ 

fer  at  home  for  that  exercise  of  their  right  which 
was  opposed  to  the  interests  or  prejudices  of  their 
male  relations  ?  Can  it  be  supposed  that  the  bal- 
lot would  give  any  security  ?  Surely  not.  In- 
timidation and  bribery,  already  so  mischievous, 
would  be  far  more  dangerous  to  the  timidity  and 
comparative  poverty  of  women  than  they  now 
are  to  men.  And,  educated  as  they  are,  their 
most  honest  decisions  would  be  worse  formed, 
even,  than  those  of  the  other  sex,  defective  as 
the  political  knowledge  of  the  greater  number  is 
still  allowed  to  be." 

The  force  of  this  reasoning  will  be  the  better 


HISTORY   OF   SUFFRAGE.  249 

appreciated,  if  we  remember  that  at  that  time,  in 
England,  there  was  a  strong  pressure  in  favor  of  a 
limited  female  suffrage,  and  that  it  was  this  lim- 
ited suffrage,  based  on  freehold  qualifications,  and 
not  comprising,  probably,  30,000,  or  at  the  utmost, 
40,000  votes  in  all,  which  she  regarded  as  likely 
to  prove  so  injurious  to  the  women  themselves. 
The  same  feeling  has  been  manifested  of.  late,  on 
the  subject,  by  women  of  high  rank  and  position, 
who  would  have  themselves  been  entitled  to  the 
suffrage,  even  before  the  passage  of  the  recent 
Reform  law,  which,  though  still  requiring  a  pro- 
perty qualification,  has  greatly  enlarged  the  num- 
ber of  voters. 

But  suffrage  in  England,  as  in  all  the  countries 
of  Europe,  rests  on  an  entirely  different  basis 
from  that  which  obtains  in  the  United  States. 
In  the  early  history  of  this  country,  various  qual- 
ifications were  required.  Among  many  of  the 
colonies,  at  first,  a  religious  test,  more  or  less 
strict,  was  established.  In  the  Quinnipiac,  or 
New  Haven  Colony,  no  man  could  vote  who  was 
not  a  member  of  the  church  ;  in  Massachusetts, 
Plymouth,  Connecticut,  and,  we  believe,  New 
Hampshire,  voters  were  required  to  be  members 
of  the  parish,  that  is,  nominally,  and  perhaps 
really,  attendants  upon  the  established  church  of 
those  States  (the  Congregational),  as  well  as  free- 
holders. Maine  and  Vermont  were  not  then  dis- 
tinct colonies.  In  Rhode  Island  they  were  only 


250     .  HISTORY   OF   SUFFRAGE. 

required  to  be  freeholders.  In  New  York  there 
was  a  property  qualification,  and,  for  a  time,  a  re- 
ligious test,  also.  Pennsylvania  required  the 
freehold,  as  did  Maryland  and  Delaware.  Vir- 
ginia only  granted  suffrage,  with  some  vexatious 
exceptions,  to  those  who  were  members  of  the 
Church  of  England,  and  were  also  proprietors. 
In  the  Carolinas  the  property  qualification  was 
high,  and  the  number  of  voters  small.  In  Geor- 

* 

gia,  from  the  beginning,  there  was  a  larger  liberty, 
though  a  small  property  qualification  was  at  first 
obligatory. 

The  principles  enunciated  in  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  had  they  been  understood  as  they 
now  are,  would  have  led  at  once  to  the  establish- 
ment of  universal  suffrage,  inasmuch  as  the  asser- 
tion that  "governments  instituted  among  men 
derive  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the 
governed,"  if  it  means  any  thing,  affirms  that  the 
consent  of  all  the  governed,  those  possessing  no 
property,  as  well  as  those  having  an  interest  in  the 
stability  and  righteousness  of  the  government,  is 
necessary  to  the  existence  of  a  rightful  government. 

Taken  in  this  sense,  the  proposition  is  not  true 
of  all  governments,  or  of  any  one  government  now 
existing,  or  which  ever  did  exist.  As  Dr.  Bush- 
nell  has  well  said,  "  No  fifth  part  of  our  own 
people,  in  fact,  ever  consented  to  the  government, 
whether  formally,  or  by  implication.  No  new 
statute  passed,  ever  had  the  consent  of  more  than 


HISTORY    OF    SUFFRAGE.  251 

a  very  small  fraction  of  the  people.  Minors, 
women,  invalids,  absentees,  voters  of  the  opposing 
party — take  away  all  these,  and  how  much  of  con- 
•sent  is  left  ?  If  the  major  vote  of  such  as  have 
the  ballot  supposes  general  consent,  then  it  must 
be  by  a  legal  fiction  so  great,  that  it  would  scarce- 
ly be  greater  without  any  vote  at  all." 

Nor,  can  this  affirmation  of  the  Declaration  be 
understood  in  that  other  sense  often  put  upon  it 
that,  "  the  consent  of  the  governed  "  implies  the 
surrender  of  individual  rights  to  society  as  a 
return  for  its  protection ;  for  this  view,  besides 
being  directly  opposed  to  the  sentiment  which  the 
authors  of  the  Declaration  were  seeking  to  impress 
upon  the  people,  is  wholly  untrue  in  point  of  fact, 
since  the  rights  and  powers  of  society  were  not 
in  any  sense  the  powers  of  individuals. 

In  neither  sense  did  it  exert  any  considerable  ef- 
fect upon  the  colonies  which  adopted  it ;  no  mate- 
rial changes  being  made  in  their  suffrage  laws  for 
many  years  after,  and,  when  made,  being  the 
result  of  other  causes  and  influences.  It  was,  in 
short,  one  of  those  "  glittering  generalities ''  of 
which  the  late  Mr.  Choate  was  accustomed  to 
speak,  and  which  Mr.  Jefferson  was  such  an  adept 
at  incorporating  into  his  appeals,  protests,  declara- 
tions, and  addresses,  to  tickle  the  popular  ear,  and 
give  utterance  to  an  apparent  truth,  when  really 
only  announcing  a  plausible  fallacy.  For  a  variety 
of  causes,  and  with  a  remarkable  lack  of  perception 


252  HISTORY    OF    SUFFRAGE. 

of  the  ultimate  results  of  their  action,  the  suffrage 
has  been  granted  to  one  class  after  another,  until, 
in  some  of  the  States,  there  are  now  only  women, 
minors,  Indians  not  taxed,  convicts,  aliens  who 
have  not  been  naturalized,  idiots  and  lunatics,  and 
transient  persons,  who  are  not  permitted  to  exer- 
cise it.  In  some  of  the  States  there  still  lingers 
the  ghost  of  a  property  qualification ;  in  others, 
there  is  an  educational  qualification,  but  so  low 
as  to  be  nearly  worthless. 

Under  the  pending  (fifteenth)  amendment  to  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  negroes  and  per- 
sons of  African  descent  will  gain  the  right  of  suf- 
frage in  those  States  where  they  do-  not  already 
possess  it ;  and,  should  the  decision  be  made  in 
our  higher  courts,  that  the  Chinese  and  Japanese 
are  citizens  and  liable  to  taxation,  they  will  form 
a  large  addition  within  a  few  years  to  our  voting 
population.  That  we  have  been  injudicious  in  thus 
extending  the  privilege  of  suffrage,  and  should,  if 
it  were  possible,  restrict  instead  of  further  enlarg- 
ing it,  will  appear,  we  think,  when  we  have  con- 
sidered what  suffrage  is,  whether  it  inheres  in  any 
class  or  classes  of  men,  and  from  whence  comes 
the  power  of  conferring  it. 


CHAPTER     XV. 

IN  considering  what  suffrage  is,  we  must  first 
look  at  the  constitution  of  society;  for  on  this 
depends  the  necessity  or  propriety  of  suffrage. 
About  the  period  of  the  American  Revolution,  the 
political  ideas  of  Rousseau,  Voltaire,  Diderot,  D'A- 
lembert,  and  other  European  democrats,  were  pro. 
mulgated,  and  exerted  a  powerful  influence  on  the 
minds  of  the  statesmen  of  the  new  republic,  then 
just  emerging  from  its  colonial  condition.  Their 
theory  was,  in  substance,  that  the  perfection  of 
human  liberty  and  equality  was  to  be  found  in  the 
savage  state,  and  that,  in  that  condition,  all 
human  beings,  or  at  least  all  men,  were  in  a  con- 
dition of  perfect  equality — no  one  possessing  any 
greater  rights  than  another ;  and  that  it  was  pos- 
sible to  rear  a  State  which  should  have  for  its 
basis  this  condition  of  the  perfect  equality  of  all 
men ;  and,  that  this  State  being  made  up  of  the  ag- 
gregation of  individuals,  each  of  whom  relinquish- 
ed a  portion  of  his  prerogatives  to  the  State,  it  thus 
acquired  the  power  of  government  and  control, 
through  the  consent  of  all  the  governed.  This 
theory  imbued  the  minds  of  our  early  statesmen, 
and  led  them  to  seek  the  establishment  of  a  new 

10*  P 


254  THEORIES    OF    SUFFRAGE. 

republic  on  these  newly-discovered  principles 
but  they  soon  found  that  their  theories  were  im- 
practicable, and  contented  themselves  with  stating 
them  in  general  terms,  while  following  in  actual 
practice  other,  older,  and  sounder  doctrines. 

This  theory  contained  two  great  fallacies,  which 
it  surprises  us  to  know  were  not  detected  by  the 
clear  and  vigorous  intellects  of  those  days,  viz., 
that  of  considering  the  individual  the  unit  of 
society,  and  ignoring  the  family,  the  true  unit  of 
both  society  and  government,  from  the  creation  to 
the  present  time  ;  and  that  of  asserting  the  equal- 
ity of  all  men,  in  any  other  sense  than  that  they 
were  equally  human  beings,  when  even  those  who 
uttered  this  declaration,  would  not  have  admitted 
that,  either  in  civil,  political,  or  social  rights,  the 
savage  Indian,  the  degraded  Hottentot,  or  the  still 
more  degraded  Bushman,  or  Andaman  Islander, 
was  his  peer. 

The  great  truth,  that  the  family,  and  not  the 
individual,  is  the  unit  of  all  human  society  and  of 
all  government,  has  a  wider  significance  than  has 
generally  been  bestowed  upon  it  ;*  for  it  follows, 
that  both  society  and  government  being  formed  by 
an  aggregation  of  families,  and  not  of  individuals, 

*  For  an  able  and  satisfactory  development  of  this  doctrine,  see  "  The 
Law  of  Love,  and  Love  as  a  Law."  By  Mark  Hopkins,  D.  D.,  LL.  D., 
President  of  Williams  College,  pp.  282,  et  seq. 

The  writer  takes  great  pleasure  in  acknowledging  his  obligations  to 
-Rev.  Dr.  Hopkins,  not  only  for  his  suggestions  on  this  but  on  other  sub- 
jects connected  with  this  work. 


THEORIES   OF   SUFFRAGE.  255 

the  latter,  as  individuals,  do  not  relinquish, 
and  can  not  have  any  distinct  rights,  of  which  the 
government  or  community  takes  possession  ;  and 
it  also  follows,  that,  in  all  governmental  acts, 
whether  voting,  holding  office,  making  or  execut- 
ing laws,  arresting,  trying,  and  punishing,  or 
acquitting  those  charged  with  crime,  those  per- 
forming these  various  duties  must  act  in  a  repre- 
sentative capacity, — doing  these  things  for  those 
whom  they  represent, — as  guardians,  trustees,  or 
deputies.  Applying  this  principle  to  the  exercise 
of  suffrage,  it  is  plain  that  each  family  needs,  at 
the  utmost,  but  a  single  representative,  its  proper 
head  and  father,  who  represents  the  entire  inter- 
ests of  the  family,  including  himself,  his  wife,  and 
his  children,  if  he  has  any.  Should  there  be 
adult  sons,  they  may  have  a  constructive  right  to 
a  vote,  since  they  are  making  preparations  to  be- 
come themselves  heads  of  other  families.  Adult 
daughters  can  have  no  such  claim,  since,  if  they 
•remain  at  home,  they  are  sufficiently  represented 
by  their  father ;  if  they  marry  and  leave  their 
former  homes,  they  can  be  represented  by  their 
husbands,  the  heads  of  new  families.  The  case 
of  single  women,  living  in  households  by  them- 
selves, and  possessing  property,  is  exceptional,  but 
might  be  provided  for  by  another  arrangement, 
of  which  we  shall  by  and  by  speak.  But  society, 
as  thus  constituted,  has  the  right,  unquestionably, 
to  limit  suffrage  still  further,  though  with  cer- 


256  THEORIES    OF    SUFFRAGE. 

tain  restrictions.  It  may  require,  for  instance, 
that  no  head  of  a  family,  or  prospective  head  of 
a  family,  shall  become  a  voter  till  he  has  arrived 
at  the  age  of  twenty-one  years  ;  that  no  one  shall 
exercise  this  right,  who  is  under  the  influence  or 
control  of  others ;  no  one  who  has  been  convicted 
of  crime  ;  no  one  who  is  an  idiot,  or  who  is  insane  ; 
no  alien,  who  has  not  signified  in  such  way  as  it 
may  prescribe,  his  intention  of  becoming  a  citizen, 
or  who  has  not  resided  a  prescribed  period  in  the 
country;  no  person  who  does  not  possess  the 
ability  to  read  the  language  of  the  country,  and 
its  fundamental  laws.  The  justice  and  propriety 
of  such  requirements  will  be  obvious  to  all ;  with 
the  exception  of  the  mental  disqualifications, 
these  conditions  are  all  within  the  capacity  of 
every  good  citizen  to  attain,  either  sooner  or 
later. 

But  taking  this  view  of  the  subject,  society 
would  not  be  justified  in  excluding  a  head  of  a 
family  from  the  suffrage  on  the  ground  of  his 
poverty,  unless  there  had  been  a  fully  understood 
compact  from  the  beginning  of  its  organic  ex- 
istence, that  there  should  be  a  fixed  limit  of  prop- 
erty as  the  minimum,  which  should  entitle  the 
representative  of  a  family  to  a  vote ;  it  would  be 
still  more  unjustifiable,  if  the  privilege  of  voting 
should  be  confined  to  those  possessing  landed 
estates  only ;  or  to  those  professing  any  particu- 
lar form  of  religious  faith  j  or  to  those  of  a  particu- 


THEORIES    OF   SUFFRAGE.  257 

lar  color  or  race,  when  they  possessed  the  other 
requisite  qualifications. 

There  is  another  class  of  restrictions,  whose 
justice  will  be  evident  to  all.  Where  the  votes 
of  a  community  or  State  would  decide  the  ques- 
tion of  the  propriety  of  declaring  war  with  some 
other  State  or  nation,  it  would  be  obviously  unjust 
that  those  should  turn  the  scale  by  their  votes 
who  could  not  do  the  fighting,  or  furnish  the  sin- 
ews of  war ;  on  a  question  of  heavy  taxation  of 
property  for  some  specific  purpose,  even  were  that 
purpose  for  the  benefit  of  the  majority  of  the 
community,  it  would  not  be  just  that  those  who 
had  no  property  to  be  taxed,  should,  by  their 
votes,  overpower  the  tax-payers,  and  take  their 
property  from  them  against  their  will.  Again,  it 
would  be  unjust  that  those  who  have  manifested 
and  still  entertain  hostile  sentiments  toward  the 
government,  and  desire  its  overthrow,  should  be 
permitted  to  vote. 

There  is  still  another  question  in  regard  to  suf- 
frage, viz., whether  property  and  vested  rights  ought 
not  to  be  represented,  as  property  ?  There  are  large 
amounts  of  property,  especially  in  our  large  cities, 
in  the  hands  of  non-residents,  aliens,  minors,  sin- 
gle women,  and  widows,  which  is  taxed  but  not 
represented ;  there  are,  also,  colleges,  universities, 
and  other  institutions,  trust  companies,  banking 
and  insurance  companies,  and  other  corporations, 
which  have  no  distinct  representation,  though 


258  THEORIES    OF    SUFFRAGE. 

obliged  to  pay  taxes.  In  regard  to  the  latter 
classes,  it  may  be  claimed,  indeed,  that  they  have 
their  paid  advocates  in  the  municipal  or  legislative 
bodies,  who  attend  to  their  interests,  sometimes 
to  the  detriment  of  their  other  constituents  ;  but 
there  is  quite  as  much  reason  for  the  representa- 
tion of  property,  as  such,  as  for  the  representation 
of  families ;  and  in  the  large  cities  quite  as  much 
danger  of  unjust  and  oppressive  taxation  of  this 
unrepresented  property,  as  of  unjust  and  oppressive 
legislation  in  regard  to  families. 

Various  modes  of  remedying  this  evil  have 
been  suggested ;  one  is,  the  permission  of  proxy 
votes  for  the  unrepresented  property;  another, 
the  admission  of  a  certain  number  of  representa- 
tives of  this  property  and  these  vested  rights, 
into  the  municipal  councils  and  legislature  ;  a 
third,  the  making  the  representation  of  property  the 
ground  of  the  election  of  one  branch  of  the  legislature 
or  municipal  government.  Whether  either  of  these 
plans  would  answer  the  purpose,  is  doubtful.  In 
the  only  case,  which  specially  concerns  us  in  this 
connection,  the  lack  of  representation  of  the  prop- 
erty of  unmarried  women  and  widows,  the  number 
is  so  small,  that,  except  in  the  event  of  a  distinct 
election  of  one  of  the  branches  of  the  municipal 
or  State  legislature  by  the  property  vote  alone, 
they  could  not  exert  a  sufficient  influence  in  favor 
of  any  one  candidate  to  put  him  under  any  especial 
obligation  to  protect  their  interests.  They  would 


THEORIES   OP    SUFFRAGE.  259 

be  as  safe,  so  far  as  their  property  was  concerned, 
in  the  hands  of  legislators  elected  without  their 
vote,  but  whose  constituents  they  would  be,  and 
over  whom  they  might  be  able  to  exercise  a  strong 
personal  influence. 

There  would  be  also  a  reluctance  on  the  part  of 
educated  and  refined  women  to  proclaim  their 
possession  of  property  by  coming  to  the  polls, 
associated  as  they  must  be  there,  with  many  men 
of  the  rougher  classes,  not  numerous  enough  them- 
selves to  make  their  influence  felt  as  a  restraint, 
and  subjected,  as  they  would  be,  to  discourtesy 
and  insult. 

It  would  be  manifestly  unjust  to  grant  this 
property  suffrage  to  one  class  of  the  now  unrepre- 
sented property-holders,  and  withhold  it  from  the 
others,  who  are  equally  sufferers  from  the  want  of  it. 
If  it  be  wrong  that  single  women  possessing  prop- 
erty should  not  be  allowed  to  vote,  it  is  equally 
wrong  that  the  property  of  non-residents,  aliens, 
minors,  and  other  classes,  should  continue  unrep- 
resented. Yet  it  would  be  a  difficult  matter  to 
arrange  a  satisfactory  mode  of  representing  all 
these  classes,  which  would  give  them  any  really 
potential  voice  in  the  imposition  of  taxes. 

In  thus  advocating  suffrage  on  the  double  basis 
of  the  family  and  of  property,  we  are  aware  that 
we  have  advanced  beyond  the  position  occupied 
by  many  able  writers  on  political  science.  Some 
contend  that  property  alone  should  have  the  right 


260  THEORIES    OF    SUFFRAGE. 

of  representation,  or  in  other  words,  that  those 
only  should  have  the  suffrage  who  have  a  proper- 
ty interest  in  the  preservation  of  good  government. 
It  must  be  confessed  that  there  is  much  force  in 
this  position.    Whether  it  should  be  so  or  not,  it  is 
a  well-known  fact  that  the  possession  of  property 
gives  a  man  the  strongest  possible  interest  in  the 
maintenance  of  a  just  and  good  government ;  and 
those  legislatures  chosen  only  by  the  votes  of  men 
possessing  a  freehold  qualification,  have  been  uni- 
formly of  a  higher  character,  and  more  just  and 
careful    of   the  interests  of  all  the  classes  they 
represented,  than  those  who  were  chosen  by  a  pro- 
miscuous rabble  of  voters,  not  one-third  of  whom 
had  any  interest  whatever  in  the  preservation  of 
good  government.     "  Manhood  suffrage,"  as  it  is 
termed,  the    permission    for  every  man,  not  an 
idiot,  lunatic,  or    criminal    (and    these    are  not 
always  excepted),  to  participate  in  the  work  of 
choosing  our  rulers,  legislators,  and  judges,  is  not 
a  measure  which  commends   itself  to  good  and 
thoughtful   citizens.      Why  should   an  ignorant, 
drunken  brute,  who  has  no  interest  in  the  govern- 
ment, unless    it  is  to  enable  him  the  better  to 
escape  the  just  reward  of  his  crimes,  a  foreigner 
perhaps,  and  entirely  destitute  of  any  knowledge 
of  our  country,  its  laws,  or  its  institutions,  be  per- 
mitted to  participate  in  the  election  of  a  judge,  a 
legislator,  a  governor,  or  a  president?     He  has 
no  property  to  be  protected,  no  interests  which 


THEORIES   OP   SUFFRAGE.  261 

will  suffer  from  bad  government,  and  he  is  influ- 
enced and  controlled  in  his  vote,  by  the  keeper 
of  the  liquor-shop  where  he  obtains  his  whisky, 
or  by  the  demagogue  in  whose  pay  that  liquor- 
dealer  is. 

Other  political  economists  insist  that  that  is 
the  best  government  where  there  is  no  voting ; 
that,  given  an  able  and  just  ruler,  with  an  admin- 
istrative council,  composed  of  good  men,  intelli- 
gent, and  desirous  of  doing  right,  and  the  right 
of  petition  bestowed  upon  the  people,  a  govern- 
ment would  be  better  administered,  and  all  classes 
better  cared  for,  than  in  a  so-called  free  g'overn- 
ment. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that,  admitting  these 
conditions,  the  community  generally  would  be 
happier  and  better;  but  the  risk  that,  when 
intrusted  with  absolute  power,  the  ruler  ^and  his 
council  might  not  be  so  just  and  upright  as  they 
were  supposed  (since  the  possession  of  irrespon- 
sible power  so  often  results  in  tyranny  and  op- 
pression even  in  men  of  the  best  intentions),  is 
so  great,  that  few  would  be  willing  to  exchange 
their  present  freedom  for  it. 

But  that  suffrage,  either  limited  or  universal, 
is  the  best  means  of  electing  or  controlling  the 
officers  of  a  government,  is  not  so  certain,  after 
all.  Its  machinery  is  necessarily  cumbrous  in  a 
great  State ;  its  results  uncertain,  and  liable  to  be 
influenced  by  demagogues  and  designing  men, 


262  THEORIES    OF   SUFFRAGE. 

who  seek  control  for  their  own  evil  purposes. 
Where  it  is  universal,  or  what  we  term  so,  em- 
bracing about  one-fifth  of  the  entire  population, 
viz.,  all  males  of  adult  age,  except  aliens,  idiots, 
lunatics,  and  convicts,  the  vote  of  the  lowest  and 
most  worthless,  vagrant,  who  is  marched  up  to  the 
polls  to  do  the  bidding  of  his  political  master, 
weighs  just  as  much,  and  often  neutralizes,  the  vote 
of  the  worthiest  and  most  respected  citizen.  More 
than  this,  it  has  proved  hitherto  an  impossibility, 
in  our  large  cities,  to  prevent  fraudulent  voting, 
both  in  the  way  of  the  same  voter  casting  his  bal- 
lot at  several  polling-places,  and  of  persons  voting 
under  false  names,  or  when  they  were  disqualified. 
It  does  not  admit  of  a  doubt  that,  at  the  last 
Presidential  election,  from  ten  to  fifteen  per  cent, 
of  the  vote  was  fraudulent,  in  some  of  the  States. 
The  further  extension  of  the  suffrage  would  only 
aggravate  this  already  terrible  political  evil. 

The  method  of  selecting  all  officers  of  govern- 
ment by  competition,  adopted  in  China,  would 
seem  to  be,  under  proper  regulations,  decidedly 
preferable  to  that  by  suffrage.  All  persons  who 
are  desirous  of  attaining  to  any  position  in  the 
State,  enter,  in  youth,  the  public  schools  or  uni- 
versities, and  are  promoted,  according  to  their 
attainments  in  literature,  science,  art,  and  morals, 
from  one  school  to  another,  by  rigid  and  careful 
examinations  by  papers ;  when,  by  successive  pro- 
motions, they  have  reached  the  three  highest 


THEORIES   OF   SUFFRAGE.  263 

schools  of  the  empire,  they  enter  into  competition 
for  any  vacancies  in  positions  under  government, 
and  from  these  are  promoted  still  higher  by  suc- 
cessive competitions.  The  adoption  of  such  a 
course  for  the  selection  of  all  our  State  officers, 
legislators,  officers  of  the  general  government,  &c., 
would  secure  men  of  high  qualifications,  and 
would  not  be  liable  to  the  same  objections  which 
exist  to  our  more  clumsy  and  corrupt  method  of 
suffrage. 

Let  us  now  briefly  review  the  positions  of  this 
chapter,  since  their  bearing  is  so  important  on  the 
question  of  suffrage. 

We  have,  we  think,  demonstrated  that  the  fam- 
ily, and  not  the  individual,  is  the  unit  of  all  organ- 
ized society  and  government ;  that  this  being  the 
case,  there  is  no  such  thing  as  an  individual  right 
of  suffrage,  as  no  one  individual,  male  or  female, 
has  contributed  any  thing  or  relinquished  any 
right  to  society,  which  gives  him  or  her  a  claim 
to  a  vote  as  an  equivalent.  That  if  suffrage  is  a 
right  at  all,  it  inheres  in  the  head  of  a  family,  as 
the  representative  of  that  component  of  society ; 
that  it  might,  by  a  liberal  construction,  be  ex- 
tended, also,  to  the  adult  sons  of  the  family,  inas- 
much as  they  are,  prospectively,  heads  of  other 
families ;  but  not  to  the  wife  or  adult  daughters, 
inasmuch  as,  if  they  remain  at  home,  they  are 
represented  by  the  husband  and  father,  as  the 
head  of  the  household  j  and  if  the  daughters 


264  THEORIES   OF   SUFFRAGE. 

marry,  they  are  represented  by  their  husbands 
as  heads  of  other  households.  We  have  also 
attempted  to  show,  that  if  there  be  any  other 
right  of  suffrage  than  this,  it  must  inhere  in  such 
property  as  is  unrepresented  by  male  heads  of 
families,  such,  for  instance,  as  the  property  of  sin- 
gle women  or  widows  living  by  themselves,  aliens, 
non-residents,  minors,  and  persons  under  the  care 
of  trustees,  and  perhaps,  also,  corporations.  We 
have  suggested  several  ways  in  which  such  prop- 
erty might  be  represented  effectively,  have  shown 
that  there  were  serious  difficulties  in  the  way  of  ac- 
complishing such  representation,  and  that  in  the 
case  of  women  holding  property,  unless  there 
were  a  separate  branch  of  the  State  or  municipal 
legislature,  elected  solely  by  the  property  vote, 
their  participation  in  a  general  election  would  be 
unfair,  and  unproductive  of  sufficient  advantage 
to  compensate  for  its  trouble  and  annoyances. 
We  have  also  considered  other  theories  of  suf- 
frage, and  have  shown  what  a  cumbrous  and  im- 
perfect measure  it  is,  and  how  liable  to  fraud  and 
abuse  ;  and  have  briefly  described  the  method  of 
competition  by  examination  for  office  as  prac- 
ticed by  the  Chinese,  as  an  available  and  desir- 
able substitute  for  suffrage.  The  bearing  of  these 
several  points  on  the  question  of  woman-suffrage 
will  be  more  fully  seen  as  we  continue  the  dis- 
cussion of  that  topic. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

THE  suffrage  laws  of  the  United  States  seem 
to  have  been  based  on  no  well-defined  principle, 
but  to  have  been  the  outgrowth  of  circumstances, 
without  any  clear  comprehension  of  the  character 
of  the  liberties  they  were  granting.  In  some 
instances  important  franchises  have  been  conferred 
on  classes  not  qualified  to  use  them  judiciously, 
merely  to  appease  a  popular  and  unreasoning 
clamor.  The  suffrage,  originally,  in  the  older 
States,  the  privilege  of  freeholders  only,  was 
subsequently  granted  to  those  who  performed 
military  duty,  and,  in  some  States,  to  those  who 
were  members  of  a  volunteer  fire  department,  if 
of  suitable  age.  It  was  next  conferred  on  those 
who  had  served  as  volunteers  in  the  war  of  1812, 
the  Mexican  war,  and  later,  the  recent  civil  war, 
where  they  were  not,  on  other  grounds,  voters. 
In  a  fit  of  democratic  generosity,  the  freehold 
qualification  was  swept  away  in  most  of  the  States, 
and  all  white  male  citizens,  natives  of  the  country, 
or  naturalized  under  United  States  laws,  which 
required  five  years'  residence  and  three  years' 
declaration  of  intention,  except  convicts,  lunatics, 
and  idiots,  were  permitted  to  vote  under  certain 


266       SUFFRAGE    IN   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

restrictions  of  residence.  A  provision  was  made 
by  the  Constitution  in  regard  to  the  Southern 
States,  by  which  a  Congressional  district  should 
be  deemed  to  have  the  requisite  population,  when 
the  white  and  free  colored  population  were  added 
to  three-fifths  "  of  all  other  persons  "  (the  consti- 
tutional euphemism  for  slaves),  to  make  up  the 
necessary  number  to  entitle  the  territory  to  a 
representative.  Thus,  in  one  sense,  the  Southern 
vote  was  increased  by  three-fifths  of  its  slave 
population,  although  these  cast  no  vote,  and 
literally,  none  was  cast  for  them.  The  late  civil 
war  abolished  this  method  of  increasing  the  con- 
gressional representation  of  the  South,  by  abolish- 
ing slavery.  A  considerable  number  of  former 
voters  at  the  South  were  at  first  disfranchised  in 
consequence  of  their  participation  in  the  insurrec- 
tion, but  by  successive  amnesties  they  were  nearly 
all  restored  to  their  civil  rights,  and  by  the  action 
of  the  constitutional  conventions  of  the  recon- 
structed States,  most  of  them  were  permitted  to 
vote  and  hold  office  again.  The  emancipated 
slaves  had  in  many  instances  contributed  all  in 
their  power  to  the  success  of  the  national  govern- 
ment; nearly  300,000  of  them  had  borne  arms, 
and  others  in  various  ways  had  given  aid  and 
comfort  to  the  national  soldiers.  It  was  proposed 
to  grant  them  the  suffrage  as  a  compensation  for 
their  patriotic  sacrifices ;  and  so  earnest  and  loud 
was  the  popular  clamor  to  grant  this  privilege  to 


SUFFRAGE    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES.       267 

all  the  adult  men  of  color  in  the  South,  that  an 
amendment  to  the  Constitution  was  passed  by 
Congress  and  ratified  by  the  States,  and  provision 
made  to  this  effect  in  all  the  new  constitutions  of 
the  reconstructed  States.  The  measure,  though 
prompted  by  the  best  of  motives,  was  injudicious  ; 
there  was  some  reason  for  according  the  privilege 
to  those  colored  men  who  had  been  in  the  Union 
service,  either  as  -soldiers,  teamsters,  or  servants, 
though  even  they  were  scarcely  qualified  by  their 
intelligence  for  the  exercise  of  so  important  a 
right ;  but  to  extend  the  same  privilege  to  all  the 
plantation  negroes,  before  they  had  acquired  any 
knowledge  in  regard  to  the  government,  or  were 
able  to  understand  the  Constitution,  was  exceed- 
ingly unwise.  They  were,  of  course,  very  liable 
to  be  influenced,  in  regard  to  their  vote,  by 
designing  men,  one  of  the  worst  evils  of  a  free 
suffrage.  It  might  be  said,  indeed,  in  partial 
justification  of  this  measure,  that  they  were  gen- 
erally very  nearly  as  intelligent  as  the  poor  whites 
of  the  South,  who  already  possessed  the  right  of 
suffrage,  but  two  wrongs  do  not  make  one  right, 
and  the  remedy  should  rather  have  been  the 
establishment  of  an  educational  test,  and  the 
refusal  of  the  privilege  to  all,  black  or  white,  who 
did  not  come  up  to  it. 

But  the  popular  heart  was  still  unsatisfied,  and 
now  the  cry  was  for  the  abolition  of  all  distinc- 
tions of  race  or  color,  as  a  ground  of  withholding 


268       SUFFRAGE    IN   THE   UNITED    STATES. 

the  privilege  of  suffrage  throughout  the  Union. 
The  amendment  to  the  Constitution  prescribing 
this  will  undoubtedly  be  ratified.  So  far  as  the 
negroes  in  the  Northern  States  are  concerned,  the 
measure  is  not  seriously  objectionable,  while  such 
facilities  exist  for  conferring  the  privilege  upon 
ignorant  and  often  degraded  foreigners, — as  the 
negroes  are  generally  the  better  citizens  of  the 
two ;  but,  with  the  near  prospect  of  a  vast  influx 
of  Chinese,  mainly  of  the  lowest  class,  who  can,  in 
five  years  at  the  most,  become  citizens  and  voters, 
we  must  think  this  further  extension  of  the  fran- 
chise should  have  been  better  guarded. 

The  advocates  of  universal  suffrage  in  the 
United  States  have  now  only  women  and  minors 
left  upon  whom  they  can  confer  the  right ;  and 
there  are  those  who  argue  that,  having  swallowed 
and  digested  every  inch  of  the  camel,  we  should 
not  so  carefully  strain  out  the  gnat. 

To  this  reasoning  we  can  not  agree  ;  if  we  have 
done  wrong  in  the  past,  if  we  have  conferred 
privileges  on  those  who  were  unworthy  of  them, 
or  who,  if  not  unworthy,  were  not  entitled  to  them, 
it  does  not  follow  that  we  should  continue  to  err 
in  the  same  or  any  other  direction.  If  there  is 
but  little  left  to  contend  for,  that  little,  if  right, 
should  be  as  valiantly  defended  as  if  it  were  more, 
since  it  is  all  that  we  can  retain. 

We  are  prepared,  then,  to  consider  the  reasons 
why,  in  this  country,  suffrage  should  not  be  granted 


OBJECTIONS    TO    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE        269 

to  women,  as  women ;  a  different  question,  be  it 
observed,  from  that  which  agitates  the  public  mind 
in  England,  the  question  there  being,  whether  the 
suffrage  should  be  granted  to  some  women,  not  as 
•women,  but  as  holders  of  property. 

These  reasons  may  be  divided  for  convenience 
sake  into  four  classes  :  those  concerning  the  polit- 
ical, social,  intellectual,  and  moral  relations. 

Beginning  with  the  political  aspect  of  the  ques- 
tion, we  may  remark,  in  the  first  place,  that 
woman  has  no  need  of  the  suffrage,  since  she 
is  already  represented  in  the  legislative  bodies? 
whether  State  or  municipal,  as  well  as  by  the 
officers  of  the  State  and  nation.  The  family  basis 
of  representation,  which,  however  unwisely  it  may 
be  extended,  is  the  true  basis,  makes  the  husband 
and  father  the  true  representative  of  his  entire 
household,  and  the  intelligent  American  voter  gen- 
erally feels  that  the  responsibility  appertaining  to 
this  representative  character  rests  upon  him.  The 
members  of  our  municipal,  State,  and  national  leg- 
islatures forgetful,  as  they  too  often  are,  of  other 
interests  confided  to  them,  or  of  duties  required  of 
them  by  their  constituents,  are  seldom,  we  might 
almost  say,  never,  unmindful  of  the  wants  and 
requirements  of  the  women  whom  they  represent 
quite  as  truly  as  they  do  the  men  of  their  respective 
districts.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  case  in  the 
past?  it  is  certain  that,  at  the  present  day,  wooien 
makes  no  reasonable  request  of  our  legislators  which 

11  Q 


270       OBJECTIONS    TO    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE. 

passes  unheeded ;  on  the  contrary,  the  danger  is 
rather  that  of  excess  in  their  liberality  in  grati- 
fying the  wishes  of  woman  than  of  denying  her 
what  are  her  just  rights.  In  all  directions  in 
which  it  is  in  the  power  of  a  legislature  to  improve 
the  condition  of  woman,  she  has  but  to  ask  to 
receive.  This  general  sentiment  of  tenderness  and 
regard  for  the  sex  on  the  part  of  men,  both  in 
high  and  in  low  station,  is  invaluable  to  women. 
It  is  their  greatest  protection  and  safeguard,  and 
it  would  be  the  greatest  of  misfortunes  to  them 
were  it  to  be,  by  any  means,  blunted  and  lowered 
in  its  tone. 

But  there  is  another  power  which  women  exert, 
independent  of  this  general  deference  which  they 
command,  the  power  of  personal  influence,  not 
only  over  voters,  but  over  their  elected  representa- 
tives. An  earnest,  determined  woman,  possessing 
those  graces  of  person  or  intellect,  which  fit  her  to 
influence  and  control  men,  can  carry  almost  any 
measure  on  which  she  has  set  her  heart,  over 
every  obstacle,  in  either  the  State  or  national 
legislature.  Take  the  case  of  Miss  Vinnie  Ream, 
who  is  engaged  in  making  a  statue,  for  the  Capitol, 
of  President  Lincoln.  Miss  Ream  may  prove  a 
sculptor  of  remarkable  ability,  and  her  statue  may 
be,  when  completed,  the  eighth  wonder  of  the 
world,  as  a  work  of  art ;  on  this  point  we  have  no 
right  to  express  an  opinion,  since  it  is  not  yet 
completed;  but  whether  it  be  so  or  not,  one  thing 


OBJECTIONS    TO    WOMAN   SUFFRAGE.         271 

is  certain,  that  it  was  not  the  consideration  of  her 
extraordinary  abilities  as  an  artist  which  led  to 
her  obtaining  this  commission,  for  she  had  done 
nothing  worthy  of  note,  and  of  the  few  busts  or 
figures  in  plaster  which  she  had  executed,  the 
members  of  Congress,  either  senators  or  represent- 
atives, had  generally  no  knowledge,  and  many  of 
them  were  incompetent  to  judge,  if  they  had  seen 
them.  No  !  it  was  her  daring,  young  girl  as  she 
was,  in  proposing  to  undertake  such  a  work ;  her 
determined  personal  canvass  of  the  members  of 
Congress  for  their  votes,  and  the  magnetic  in- 
fluence of  her  powers  of  fascination  over  grave 
and  venerable  senators,  and  intelligent  representa- 
tives, which  enabled  her  to  procure  an  order  for  a 
statue,  more  liberal  in  its  terms  and  more  remark- 
able for  its  perfect  confidence  in  the,  as  yet  untried, 
ability  of  the  artist,  than  any  commission  of  the 
sort  in  modern  times.  Instances  of  this  power  of 
woman's  personal  influence  in  political  matters 
are  innumerable.  Who  has  not  heard  of  the  bene- 
ficent efforts  of  Mrs.  Husband,  during  the  war,  in 
procuring  from  President  Lincoln  the  commutation 
of  sentence,  and  often  the  pardon  of,  soldiers  con- 
demned to  die  under  the  barbarous  military  laws  ? 
Who  does  not  know  of  the  success  of  the  infamous 
Mrs.  Cobb  as  a  pardon-broker  during  the  late 
administration  ? 

In  the  second  place,  the  exercise  of  the  suf- 
frage by  woman  would  be  an  attempt  to  make 


272         OBJECTIONS    TO   WOMAN   SUFFRAGE. 

suffrage  individual  instead  of  representative,  and 
so  against  the  natural  order  of  things.  The  other 
extensions  of  the  voting  privilege,  to  which  we 
have  referred,  however  injudicious  they  may  have 
been,  did  not  materially  interfere  with  its  repre- 
sentative character,  as  based  on  the  family  as  the 
unit  of  society  ;  but  this  would  inaugurate  an 
entirely  different  principle ;  the  right  of  the  in- 
dividual, as  such,  to  participate  in  the  govern- 
ment, a  claim  incompatible  with  the  organization 
of  society,  and  subversive  of  its  best  interests.  In 
all  large  communities  and  States,  the  principle  of 
representation  must  obtain  in  the  government. 
The  executive  represents  and  is  responsible  to, 
not  merely  the  party  which  elected  him,  but  the 
whole  people  of  the  State  or  community.  The 
member  of  Congress,  or  of  the  State  legislature, 
represents  all  the  people  of  his  district,  and  it  is 
his  duty  to  further  their  interests  so  far  as  is 
compatible  with  justice;  and  every  voter  who  casts 
his  ballot,  represents,  on  an  average,  five  people 
who  do  not  and  can  not  vote.  Abrogate  this  princi- 
ple of  representation,  and  let  each  voter  represent 
only  himself  or  herself,  and  you  loosen  the  bond 
which  holds  society  together ;  the  male  voter  will 
say  at  once  :  "  I  have  no  need  to  consider  anybody's 
interest  but  my  own ;  my  wife,  my  sister,  my 
daughter,  may  desire  to  see  a  certain  man  elected, 
or  a  certain  measure  voted  for,  which  will  prove 
beneficial  to  their  interests ;  but  they  must  vote 


OBJECTIONS    TO    WOMAN   SUFFRAGE.         273 

for  it  themselves  ;  I  shall  consult  my  own  interests 
solely."  The  representative  elected  by  the  votes 
of  those  who  exercise  the  suffrage  solely  for  the 
gratification  of  their  own  whims,  will  cease  to 
regard  his  representative  character  as  essential ; 
he  has  no  longer  to  look  upon  the  families  of  his 
district  as  his  constituents,  or  to  feel  a  responsi- 
bility to  them.  They  are  merely  an  aggregation 
of  individuals  who  cast  their  votes  for  him,  be- 
cause he  was  nominated,  and  not  because  they 
expected  to  hold  him  accountable  for  his  acts, 
and  he  must  make  the  most  of  his  opportunity,  for 
he  may  not  have  another.  Hence  will  come  rings, 
corruption,  public  plunder,  and  subserviency  to 
great  corporations,  to  an  extent  far  beyond  that 
which  has  already  awakened  the  indignation  of  the 
public. 

In  the  third  place,  by  woman  suffrage  women 
will  gain  nothing,  while  they  will  lose  much. 
From  what  we  have  already  said,  it  will  be  seen 
that  they  will  lose  all  the  advantages  which  they 
now  possess  from  the  representative  character  of 
the  suffrage,  all  that  chivalric  regard  for  their 
interests,  which  now  prompts  our  legislators  to 
grant  all  their  reasonable  and  some  of  their  un- 
reasonable requests,  as  a  matter  of  course ;  all 
that  their  personal  influence  is  now  able  to  effect, 
and  all  that  is  gained  now  from  family,  in  the 
place  of  individual  interest  in  the  ballot. 

Women  would  be,  in  almost  all  communities,  a 


274  OBJECTIONS    TO    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE. 

minority  at  the  polls;  there  would  be  so  many 
who  could  not,  and  so  many  who  would  not, 
vote,  that  it  would  be  remarkable  if  their  vote 
ever  exceeded  that  of  men.  It  would  hardly 
be  possible  that,  in  any  case,  even  in  matters 
concerning  their  own  interests,  they  would  all 
vote  alike.  They  would  be  likely  to  be  divided, 
as  their  husbands,  brothers,  and  fathers  were 
between  the  two  parties,  perhaps  unequally,  but 
never  to  such  an  extent  as  to  enable  them  to  rule 
or  control  either  party.  Generally,  they  would 
have  to  vote  for  men,  often  for  men  whom  they 
greatly  disliked,  for  legislators,  or  State,  or  national 
officers.  They  might,  and  doubtless  often  would, 
contribute  to  place  in  power  some  unprincipled 
demagogue,  but  very  rarely  would  they  be  able  to 
rally  votes  enough  to  succeed  in  electing  an  up- 
right and  honest  man ;  they  might,  at  times,  be 
allowed,  as  a  special  favor,  to  elect  one  or  two 
of  their  own  sex  to  the  legislature,  or  to  some 
petty  office ;  but  such  an  election  would  prove 
any  thing  but  a  favor  to  the  unfortunate  candidate  ; 
in  a  hopeless  minority,  so  far  as  any  action  in 
relation  to  her  sex  was  concerned,  all  her  prestige 
as  a  woman  gone,  without  influence  or  position, 
yet  expected  to  do  for  her  sex  what  chivalry 
had  previously  prompted  men  to  do,  it  would  be 
strange  if  the  poor  representative  of  women's  suf- 
frage did  not  very  early  resign  her  seat,  in  an 
uncontrollable  fit  of  home-sickness. 


OBJECTIONS    TO    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE.  275 

Naturally  enough,  the  measures  which  concern- 
ed women  would  be  referred  to  them  in  a  legislature 
in  which  there  were  a  few  (there  never  would  be 
many)  female  members ;  but  their  power  to  effect 
their  passage  would  be  infinitely  less  than  if  they 
were  not  members  of  the  legislative  body.  In 
such  a  body,  and  as  a  member  of  it,  the  most  elo- 
quent of  women  would  find  her  oratory  out  of 
place,  and  her  pleas  would  fall  cold  and  dead.  All 
legislation  in  the  interests  of  women  would  be 
paralyzed,  and  their  progress  in  the  attainment  of 
their  legal  rights  arrested,  and  postponed  for  a 
full  half-century. 

In  the  fourth  place,  there  is  no  possible  plea  in 
justification  of  woman's  intrusion  into  the  realm 
of  political  action.  The  admission  of  some  of  the 
classes  which  have  latterly  received  the  privilege 
of  the  suffrage  might  be  justified  as  an  act  of  self- 
defense  ;  the  foreigner,  after  a  certain  period  of 
residence  and  naturalization,  might  plead  in  favor 
of  his  admission  to  the  suffrage,  that  he  had  prop- 
erty to  protect,  that  the  attitude  of  the  native- 
born  citizens  toward  him  was  one  of  hostility,  and 
that  he  must  have  the  ballot  for  his  own  protec- 
tion. In  like  manner,  the  men  of  color  might  ask 
for  the  suffrage  to  protect  them  from  the  encroach- 
ments and  oppressions  of  the  whites,  and  the 
disfranchised  citizens  of  the  South  might  seek  it 
to  save  them  from  apprehended  aggressions  on  the 
part  of  the  blacks. 


276        OBJECTIONS    TO    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE. 

But  the  relations  of  men  and  women  can  never 
be,  to  any  extent,  such  as  under  ordinary  circum- 
stances to  array  them  in  hostility  to  each  other, 
or  make  one  fear  the  aggressions  of  the  other. 

Mother,  wife,  sister,  or  daughter;  one  or  other, 
and  perhaps  more  than  one,  of  these  relations 
every  woman  holds  to  the  men  around  her  ;  and,  if 
he  would,  man  can  not  make  any  laws  or  take  any 
measures  seriously  detrimental  to  their  interests. 
They  are  bone  of  his  bones,  and  flesh  of  his  flesh ; 
and  if  he  is  made  their  representative  and  trusted 
to  act  for  their  interests,  he  will,  from  the  sheer 
selfishness  of  relationship,  do  his  best  for  them. 
But  separate  the  two  sexes;  let  man  understand 
that  woman  is  determined  to  stand  for  herself,  and 
neither  desires  nor  needs  his  assistance,  and  how 
soon  would  an  antagonism  be  engendered,  which 
many  waters  could  not  quench.  All  such  inter- 
ference with  the  laws  of  nature,  and  the  relations 
in  which  the  All-wise  Creator  has  placed  his  crea- 
tures to  each  other,  can  only  be  productive  of  evil 
and  misery. 

In  the  fifth  place,  the  exercise  of  the  privilege 
of  suffrage  would  not  be,  and,  in  the  nature  of  the 
case,  could  not  be  a  remedy  for  any  one  of  the 
wrongs  or  evils  from  which  women  now  suffer. 

We  have  all  heard  of  the  pope's  bull  against  the 
comet,  and  we  remember  how  the  comet  kept  on 
its  way  undisturbed  by  the  fulminations  of  his 
holiness.  The  comet  moved  in  obedience  to 


OBJECTIONS    TO   WOMAN    SUFFRAGE.      £77 

natural  laws,  over  which  the  pope's  missives  could 
have  no  control.  Precisely  similar  is  the  case  of 
the  principal  wrongs  of  which  women  complain, 
and  which  are,  undoubtedly,  real  wrongs  :  low 
wages — we  might  say,  starvation  wages — too  many 
hours  work  in  the  day,  want  of  employment,  over- 
crowding in  many  branches  of  business,  and,  per- 
haps, also,  more  stringent  enactments  against  broth- 
els, seduction,  &c. 

In  a  former  chapter  we  have  shown  that  the 
evils  complained  of  in  regard  to  employments 
were  not,  in  any  respect,  subjects  for  legislation ; 
that  the  laws  of  supply  and  demand  must  regulate 
the  prices  of  labor  as  of  every  thing  else,  and  that 
they  must  be  remedied,  if  remedied  at  all,  by  an 
increase  of  intelligence  which  should  lift  up  a  con- 
siderable number  to  a  higher  plane,  where  the 
demand  was  greater  than  the  supply ;  by  trades- 
unions,  which  would  enable  women  to  control  the 
price  of  their  labor;  by  the  suppression  of  the 
practice  of  underbidding,  both  by  the  poorest  class 
of  partially  skilled  working-women  in  the  cities,  and 
by  women  in  the  country,  who,  having  homes  and 
food  furnished,  undertake  this  kind  of  work  to 
supply  themselves  with  a  little  pocket-money  j 
and  by  co-operation,  which  should  enable  them  to 
obtain  food  and  rents  cheaper,  and,  perhaps,  to  be- 
come their  own  employers.  It  is  obvious  that  the 
suffrage  is  not  required  for  any  of  these  purposes. 

As  to  the  legal  enactments  sought,  is  it  not  plain 
11* 


278  OBJECTIONS   TO   WOMAN   SUFFRAGE. 

to  every  thoughtful  mind,  that  the  probability  is  a 
thousand-fold  stronger  of  obtaining  the  desired 
legislation  speedily,  by  appealing  to  existing  or 
soon-to-be-assembled  legislatures,  and  asking  for  the 
enactment  of  such  statutes  as  are  needful,  on  the 
ground  of  good  order,  good  morals,  and  the  moral 
and  social  rights  of  women,  than  by  attempting, 
what  would  prove  a  perfect  failure,  the  election  of 
a  sufficient  number  of  women  to  any  legislature, 
to  pass,  by  their  votes,  the  desired  enactments  ? 

The  arguments  which  we  have  adduced  will,  we 
believe,  be  sufficient  to  show  the  inexpediency  of 
women's  suffrage  as  a  political  measure. 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

THE    objections    to    woman-suffrage    on   social 
grounds  are  numerous  and  important.     If  women 
are  to  vote,  they  must  either  be  conversant  with 
the  political  questions  of  the  day,  and  able  to  form 
an  intelligent  opinion  on  them,  or  they  must  vote 
under  the  leading  and  guidance  of  others,  and  thus 
become  the  dupes  and  prey  of  selfish  and  unprin- 
cipled politicians.     In  the  one  case  they  will  be- 
come partisans  ;  zealous,  earnest,  indefatigable  in 
their  way,  but,  alas,  too  forgetful  of  that  womanly 
modesty  and  grace  which  is  the  highest  ornament 
of  womanhood.     If  now  it  should   happen,  as  it 
often  would,  that  the  wife  should,  from  conviction 
or  from  prejudice,  adopt  the  views,  principles,  and 
candidates  of  one  party,  and  the  husband  those  of 
another,  and  both  were  positive  and    decided  in 
their  opinions,  what  bickerings,  what  acrid  debates, 
what  bitter  feelings  would  be  engendered  in  the 
family  circle  !     How  unseemly  would  be  such  con-  *• 
tests  in  the  presence  of  their  children,  if  they  had 
any !   And,  how  often  would  it  break  up  the  peace 
of  families,  and  lead  to  separation,  or,  at  least,  to 
permanent  estrangement !      Again,  as  Dr.  Bush- 
nell  has  well  observed  :  "  The  struggle  (of  a  great 


280          OBJECTIONS    TO    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE. 

political  campaign)  is  a  trial  even  for  men,  that 
sometimes  quite  overturns  their  self-mastery,  and 
totally  breaks  down  the  strength  both  of    their 
principles  and  their  bodies.     And  yet  if  we  en- 
large the  contest,  as  we  must  when  we  bring  in 
women,  it  will  be  manifold  more  intense  than  now. 
Hitherto,  it  has  been  an  advantage  to  be  going 
into  battle  in  our  suffrages  with  a  full  half,  and 
that  the  best  half  morally,  as  a  corps  of  reserve, 
left  behind,  so  that  we    may  fall  back    on    this 
quiet   element   or  base   several  times  a  day,  and 
always  at  night,  and  recompose  our  courage  and 
settle  again  our  mental  and  moral  equilibrium.  Now 
it  is  proposed  that  we  have  no  reserve  any  longer, 
that  we  go  into  our  conflicts  taking  our  women 
with  us,  all  to  be  kept  heating  in  the  same  fire  for 
weeks  or  months  together,  without  interspacings 
of  rest  or  cooling  times  of  composure.     We  are 
to  be  as  much  more  excited,  of  course,  as  we  can 
be,  and  the  women  are,  of  course,  to  be  as  much  more 
excited  than  we,  as  they  are  more  excitable.    Let 
no  man  imagine — as  we  see  to  be  the  way  of  many 
— that  our  women  are  going  into  these  encounters 
to  be  just  as  quiet  or  as  little  nerved  as  now,  when 
they  stay  in  the  rear  unexcited,  letting  us  come 
back  to  them  often  and  recover  our  reason.     They 
are  (to  be)  no  more  mitigators  now,  but  instigators 
rather,  sweltering  in  the  same  fierce  heats  and  com- 
motions,  only  more     fiercely    stirred    than    we. 
What  we  take  by  first-hand  impulse,  they  take  by 


OBJECTIONS    TO    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE.          283 

exaggeration.  And,  accordingly,  it  will  be  seen, 
that  where  we  are  simply  at  red-heat,  they  are  at 
white ;  that  where  we  deprecate,  they  hate ;  that 
where  we  touch  the  limits  of  reason,  they  touch 
the  limits  of  excess ;  that,  where  we  are  impetu- 
ous in  a  cause,  they  are  uncontrollable  in  it.  We 
know  how,  as  men,  to  be  moderated  in  part  by 
self-moderation,  even  as  ships  by  their  helms,  in 
all  great  storms  at  sea.  For  the  other  part,  we  had 
women  kept  in  moderation  by  their  element,  even 
as  ships  in  harbor  lie  swinging  by  their  anchors  ; 
but  now  we  get  even  less  of  help  from  them  than 
they  do  from  us.  I  do  not  mean  by  this,  that 
women  do  not  show  as  brave  self-keeping  often  as 
men,  but  that  going  more  by  feeling  than  men, 
they  feel  every  thing  more  intensely,  and  with  more 
liabilities  to  excess.  They  make  more  of  their 
idols,  too,  than  men  do,  raise  more  false  halos 
about  them,  and  even  have  it  as  a  kind  of  virtue 
to  bear  defeat  badly  in  their  cause.  Hard  pushed 
by  adversaries,  they  almost  certainly  count  them 
personal  enemies.  It  is  not  that  some  hysterical, 
over-delicate  women  are  prone  to  such  exaggera- 
tions of  sensibility,  but  that,  like  our  Southern 
women,  or  the  tough  city  mothers  of  Sparta,  they 
too  commonly  allow  their  passions  to  get  heated, 
and  call  it  their  righteous  sentiment.  To  conceive 
our  whole  popular  mass,  both  male  and  female, 
seething  at  once  in  the  same  vortex  of  party  com- 
motion— ten  women  taking  hold  of  one  man,  to  at 


284        OBJECTIONS   TO    WOMAN   SUFFRAGE. 

once  possess  and  dispossess  him  in  their  higher 
key  of  excitement — is  no  pleasant  thing  to  con- 
template. But  the  specially  sad  thing  of  it  is,  not 
that  men  will  be  heated  and  put  to  a  strain,  and 
made  coarse,  possibly  violent,  but  that  women 
will  be.  Men  are  made  to  be  coarse,  after  a  cer- 
tain masculine  fashion,  but  there  is  no  such  mas- 
culine fashion  for  women." 

These  storms  of  passion,  which  must  come  very 
frequently  in  the  life  of  every  woman  of  the  edu- 
cated class  who  gives  herself  up  to  politics,  can 
not  pass  without  leaving  their  sad  traces  both  on 
her  social  character,  and  on  her  countenance. 
There  is  no  hatred  so  implacable,  especially  with 
women,  as  a  political  hatred,  no  bitterness  so  in- 
tense as  that  which  is  gendered  by  political  strife. 
How  fearful  must  be  the  effects  of  this  upon 
neighborhoods,  where  old  friends  will  no  more 
speak  to  each  other,  but  pass  those  whom  they 
formerly  loved  with  a  scowl  of  hate,  or  a  look  of 
contempt,  and  where  often  they  will  seek  the 
injury  of  those  once  dear  to  them  as  the  apple  of 
their  eye. 

That  we  are  not  exaggerating  these  results, 
will  be  evident,  if  we  recall  the  conduct  of  women 
of  the  highest  social  position  in  the  South,  during 
the  late  war.  Women  there  did  not  vote,  it  is 
true  ;  but  they  became  fully  absorbed  in  the  politi- 
cal questions  at  issue,  and  entered  into  them  with 
such  a  violent  spirit,  that  those  who  had  formerly 


OBJECTIONS    TO   WOMAN    SUFFRAGE.        285 

been  the  most  gentle  and  amiable  of  their  sex, 
manifested  a  temper  almost  fiendish  in  its  bitter- 
ness, and  this,  not  only  toward  the  soldiers  and 
the  people  of  the  North,  against  whom  it  might  be 
supposed  that  their  wrath  would  be  most  natu- 
rally directed,  but  they  were  even  more  bitter  and 
vindictive  toward  Southern  men  and  women  who 
espoused  the  side  of  the  Union.  Women,  formerly 
gentle  and  refined,  gloried  in  wearing  charms, 
rings,  &c.,  made  from  the  bones  of  the  hated 
Yankees  slain  in  battle,  or  murdered  by  guerrillas  ; 
they  often  expressed  their  desire,  which  some  of 
them  put  in  practice,  to  kill  some  of  them  for 
themselves,  and  the  Southern  gallant  could  bring 
no  surer  passport  to  the  affections  of  the  woman 
whom  he  sought  to  win,  than  the  evidence  that 
he  had  killed  a  Yankee. 

Toward  Southern  Union  women,  this  bitter  hate 
manifested  itself  in  all  possible  ways.  We  have 
now  in  mind  the  sufferings  of  a  noble  Christian 
woman  in  one  of  the  Southern  cities,  a  lady 
whose  wealth,  culture,  refinement,  genial  manners 
and  large-hearted  liberality,  had  enabled  her  to 
maintain  for  years  the  highest  social  position.  To 
be  on  terms  of  intimacy  with  her,  had  been  long  a 
privilege  for  which  the  best  families  of  the  city 
were  ready  to  strive ;  but  at  the  beginning  of  the 
war  she  was  unflinchingly  loyal  and  Union-loving  ; 
and  very  soon  all  her  old  friends,  with  but  two  or 
three  exceptions,  fell  off;  her  house,  once  thronged 


286        OBJECTIONS   TO    WOMAN    SUFFKAGE. 

with  visitors,  was  now  deserted;  as  she  walked 
along  the  streets,  her  former  friends  passed  her 
with  averted  gaze  or  carefully  drew  aside  their 
clothing,  lest  it  should  be  tainted  by  contact  with 
her;  scurrilous  and  abusive  notes,  penned  by 
female  hands,  were  constantly  sent  to  her,  and 
attacks  upon  her  character  and  reputation  of  the 
most  cruel  nature  were  made  by  female  contribu- 
tors to  the  public  prints.  The  fences  and  walls 
of  her  dwelling  were  covered,  night  after  night, 
with  the  most  outrageous  abuse,  and  her  life  was 
more  than  once  in  peril.  She  persisted,  however, 
in  her  tender  care  for  Union  soldiers,  sick,  wound- 
ed, and  in  prison  in  the  city ;  but  even  since  the 
war,  the  old  hatred  ever  and  anon  breaks  out,  and 
of  all  her  professed  female  friends  before  the  war, 
she  can  now  scarcely  number  one  whose  attach- 
ment has  been  unfaltering.  And  this  was  but  one 
instance  of  hundreds  occurring  throughout  the 
South. 

Does  the  picture  disgust  and  shock  you,  fair 
sisters  ?  Remember  that  human  nature  (and 
woman  nature)  is  much  the  same  everywhere,  and 
that  under  the  influence  of  ungovernable  political 
passion,  in  the  heated  contests  that  are  coming, 
you,  too,  much  as  you  may  now  loathe  the  thought 
of  such  a  thing,  might  be  betrayed  into  similar 
excesses.  Hazael  (2  Kings,  viii.  7-15)  was  horror- 
stricken  when  Elisha  told  him  of  the  terrible 
cruelties  he  would  commit,  and  exclaimed,  un- 


OBJECTIONS   TO    WOMAN   SUFFRAGE.        287 

doubtedly  in  the  honesty  of  his  heart,  "  Is  thy 
servant  a  dog,  that  he  should  do  this  thing?" 
And  yet  he  was  even  more  brutal  and  cruel  than 
the  prophet  had  predicted  he  would  be.  Nero, 
according  to  Roman  historians,  was,  in  his  youth, 
of  so  gentle  and  amiable  a  disposition,  that  he 
wept  and  shrank  back  from  signing  the  death- 
warrant  of  a  notorious  offender ;  yet  such  was 
his  subsequent  career  of  cruelty  and  crime,  that 
his  name  has  become  the  synonym  of  infamy. 

The  effect  of  these  terrible  excitements,  these 
whirlwinds  of  passion,  upon  the  general  temper, 
can  not  be  other  than  evil.  The  human  heart 
thus  torn  and  rent  by  the  tempest  never  regains 
its  former  serenity.  The  temper  will  be  fitful, 
and  at  intervals  of  constantly  increasing  frequency ; 
outbursts  of  passion  will  occur  which  will  cause 
intense  suffering  to  all  around  them,  as  well  as  to 
the  unhappy  victims  of  passion  themselves.  Wal- 
ter Savage  Landor,  the  poet  and  essayist,  united 
to  an  almost  womanly  tenderness  and  gentleness 
this  tendency  to  be  betrayed  into  fits  of  ungov- 
ernable passion,  and  with  increasing  years  these 
paroxysms  grew  more  frequent,  till  he  became  a 
terror  to  all  his  friends.  Nor  will  this  life  of 
intense  excitement,  with  its  coarse  and  brutalizing 
influences,  be  less  marked  in  its  effect  upon  the 
face,  the  air,  the  voice,  and  the  manner,  of  the 
women  who  have  been  subjected  to  it.  As  well 
might  we  expect  the  oak,  scarred  and  blighted  by 


288         OBJECTIONS    TO   WOMAN    SUFFRAGE. 

the  lightnings  of  heaven,  to  show  no  traces  of  the 
thunderbolt's  course,  as  that  faces,  once  fair,  but  so 
often  visited  by  the  fiery  storm  of  passion,  should 
retain  no  marks  of  the  tempests  that  have  passed 
over  them.  The  face  of  an  actress,  especially  of 
a  tragedian,  speedily  shows  the  traces  of  the 
passion  she  has  successfully  simulated,  and  it 
requires  all  the  resources  of  the  cosmetic  art  to 
prevent  them  from  becoming  so  manifest  as  to 
impair  her  capacity  for  her  profession.  How  much 
more  difficult  will  it  be  to  hide  the  wave-marks 
of  real  passion ! 

The  charm  of  beauty,  that  grace  of  features 
which  we  call  fair,  will  disappear  very  speedily 
under  the  cares  and  violence  of  political  strife, 
and  women  will  acquire  a  bolder,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  a  more  care-worn  expression  ;  they  will  have 
a  sharper,  more  wiry  voice,  modulated  upon  a 
higher  key,  and  that  "  lean  and  hungry "  look 
which  has  been  the  characteristic  of  politicians 
since  the  time  of  Cassius. 

The  blush  of  modesty,  the  timid,  half-frightened 
expression  which  is,  to  all  right-thinking  men,  a 
higher  charm  than  the  most  perfect,  self-consciou.« 
beauty,  will  disappear,  and  in  the  place  of  it  we 
shall  have  hard,  self-reliant,  bold  faces,  out  of 
which  all  the  old  loveliness  will  have  faded,  and 
naught  remain  save  the  look  of  power  and  talent, 
blighted  like  that  of  a  fallen  angel. 

Were  women  to  vote,  they  would  feel  a  neces- 


OBJECTIONS  TO  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE.    289 

sity  to  have  political  papers  of  their  own,  devoted 
to  the  feminine  side  of  political  life,  and  these,  of 
course,  of  differing  politics  to  suit  the  differing 
tastes  of  their  patrons,  and,  of  course,  edited  by 
women.  Our  present  political  papers,  in  the  heat 
of  a  party  conflict,  are  none  too  decorous ;  their 
gross  personalities,  slanders,  and  diatribes  on  the 
candidates  and  their  supporters,  often  make  a 
man  of  any  sensibility  regret  that  he  ever  learned 
to  read  ;  but,  judging  from  the  few  political  papers 
hitherto  edited  by  women,  as  well  as  from  the 
tendency  of  the  sex,  when  enraged,  to  indulge 
in  the  most  severe  and  abusive  language,  we 
may  safely  conclude  that  the  worst  specimens  of 
the  political  newspaper  hitherto,  would  be  models 
of  decency,  when  compared  with  the  sheets  which 
would  then  grace  our  tables. 

There  would  be,  indeed,  one  door  of  hope.  It 
has  been  proposed,  and  it  is  said  the  experiment 
has  been  tried  with  success,  as  a  cure  of  habitual 
drunkenness,  that  the  drunkard  should  be  shut  up 
in  a  room  saturated  with  the  fumes  of  alcoholic 
liquors,  that  his  clothing  and  bedding  should  be 
soaked  with  whisky,  and  all  his  food  and  drink 
so  thoroughly  permeated  with  it,  that,  for  the 
space  of,  say  two  weeks,  the  stench  of  it  should  be 
constantly  in  his  nostrils.  By  this  treatment,  it 
is  said,  that  the  poor  wretch  comes  very  soon  to 
loathe  the  vile  drug  so  utterly,  that  he  can  never 
again  be  persuaded  to  take  a  drop  of  it  Some- 


290        OBJECTIONS    TO   WOMAN    SUFFRAGE. 

thing  of  this  sort  might  be  hoped  for  from  this 
constant  din  of  politics  which  would  occur  in  our 
more  intelligent  families.  Where  husband  and 
wife  were  both  voters  and  partisans,  especially  if 
they  happened  to  be  on  opposite  sides,  the  dis- 
cussion would  go  on  unceasingly,  morning,  noon, 
and  night;  there  would  be  no  rest,  and  if  the 
debate  were  to  be  enlivened  by  choice  passages 
from  such  political  papers  as  we  have  described, 
there  would  soon  come,  we  believe,  such  a  feeling 
of  nauseation  with  politics,  that  the  subject  would 
be  tabooed  for  ever. 

Thus  much  we  have  thought  it  needful  to  say 
of  the  social  aspect  of  woman-suffrage  among  the 
more  educated  and  intelligent  classes.  Let  us  now 
glance  at  it  in  its  influence  upon  the  social  rela- 
tions of  the  lower  and  more  ignorant  classes. 

That  these  would  vote  intelligently,  or  from  any 
conviction  of  right  or  wrong  in  connection  with 
their  vote,  no  one  can  believe  who  has  any  knowl- 
edge of  these  classes. 

The  great  body  of  domestic  servants,  especially 
those  of  Irish  and  German  origin,  and  of  the  Cath- 
olic faith,  will  follow  the  dictation  of  their  priests 
unquestioningly,  and  we  say  it  with  no  disposition 
to  find  fault  with  the  priests,  the  entire  vote  of 
this  class  would  be  thrown  at  their  bidding,  and 
almost  wholly  in  one  direction.  But  bad  as  this 
would  be, — and  we  regard  votes  given  at  the  dicta- 
tion and  under  the  influence  of  others  as  among 


OBJECTIONS    TO    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE.        293 

the  sorest  evils  of  free  suffrage, — there  are  other 
evils  to  be  dreaded,  in  a  social  point  of  view,  worse 
than  this.  The  feeling  of  antagonism  which 
exists  between  the  more  ignorant  of  the  Irish 
Catholics  and  their  Protestant  employers  is  much 
stronger  on  the  side  of  the  Irish  than  we  gener- 
ally imagine.  Occasionally  a  lightning-flash,  like 
that  of  the  great  riot  of  1863  in  New  York  City, 
shows  it  in  all  its  intensity,  for  a  brief  period ;  we 
see  then  that  those  who  have  been  confidential 
servants,  long  trusted  and  regarded  as  humble  but 
true  friends,  are  ready,  under  the  influence  of 
excitement,  to  plunder  and  destroy  our  own  prop- 
erty or  that  of  our  friends,  if  we  or  they  belong  to 
the  class  against  whom  their  anger  is  roused.  In 
the  political  strife,  it  will  often  happen  that  these 
servants  will  be  enlisted  on  the  opposite  side  from 
their  employers  ;  and  when  the  contest  is  a  warm 
and  exciting  one,  what  warrant  have  we  for 
believing  that  Biddy,  in  her  enthusiasm  for  the 
cause,  which  her  priest  has  told  her  is  the  right 
one,  may  not  resort  to  some  measures  to  nullify 
her  employer's  vote,  which  would  not  bear  a  legal 
scrutiny  ?  Or,  believing  that  the  end  would 
justify  the  means,  that  she  might  not  participate 
in  some  riot  or  foul  play,  which  would  endanger 
the  life  or  property  of  her  employers  ? 

A  very  large  proportion  of  those  women  and 
girls  who  are  employed  in  manufactories,  espe- 
cially in  our  great  cities,  are  of  foreign  birth,  and 


294        OBJECTIONS   TO   WOMAN   SUFFRAGE. 

would  be  subject  to  the  same  influences  as  the 
servant  girls.  There  would  be  some  danger  of 
influence  being  exerted  in  the  case  of  these  in 
another  direction,  as  objectionable  as  that  of  the 
priests,  viz. :  the  threats  of  employers  to  dismiss 
them,  in  the  case  of  their  voting  in  opposition  to 
the  employer's  views.  Intimidation  of  this  sort 
has  been  largely  practiced  in  the  South,  in  regard 
to  another  dependent  class,  the  negroes;  and 
human  nature  is  so  much  alike  everywhere,  that 
it  might  naturally  be  expected  in  the  case  of 
factory  girls. 

The  whole  class  of  unskilled  and  partially 
skilled  female  laborers  will  be,  if  woman-suffrage 
prevails,  in  the  market  with  their  votes.  Too 
poor  to  afford  to  spare  the  time  for  voting,  except 
for  pay,  they  will,  almost  without  exception,  be 
ready  to  accept  the  best  offer.  They  are,  with 
but  slight  exceptions,  too  ignorant  to  have  any 
intelligent  ideas  on  political  questions,  and  hence 
will  have  no  conscientious  scruples  against  voting 
for  the  side  which  pays  best. 

There  is  still  another  class  who  will  be  found 
at  the  polls  "  early  and  often,"  and  to  whom  the 
election  will  be  a  gala-day,  since  then,  of  all  days 
in  the  year,  they  will  be  the  equals  of  the  best 
women  of  the  community.  Whoever  else  fails  to 
be  at  the  polls,  when  woman-suffrage  is  permit- 
ted, the  prostitute  will  not,  and  her  vote  will  be 
given  as  the  keeper  of  the  den  of  vice  in  which 


OBJECTIONS   TO    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE.        295 

she  dwells  may  direct.  Corrupt  men,  desirous  of 
office,  will  secure  the  votes  of  these  poor  wretches 
for  themselves,  by  a  bonus  to  their  keepers,  and, 
when  it  can  be  done,  will  cause  them  to  repeat 
their  votes  in  one  precinct  after  another,  till  they 
have  registered  votes  enough  to  attain  their 
purpose. 

Will  it  be  pleasant  for  modest,  refined,  Chris- 
tian women,  to  go  to  the  polls  in  the  company  of 
these  daughters  of  shame  ?  Will  the  loud  laugh, 
the  boisterous  behavior,  and  the  drunken  leer  of 
these  poor  creatures  (who  are,  after  all,  to  be  pitied 
almost  as  much  as  they  are  to  be  blamed),  cause 
them  to  feel  any  more  proud  of  their  sex,  or  more 
certain  of  the  great  advantages  to  be  gained  from 
woman-suffrage  ?  Would  it  not  be  a  nobler  and 
better  object  to  attain,  to  rescue  these  poor  souls 
from  the  bondage  of  sin,  to  emancipate  them  from 
the  service  and  oppression  of  the  devil,  than  to 
succeed  in  bestowing  on  woman  a  gift  of  such 
doubtful  value  as  suffrage — a  Pandora's  box,  whose 
evils  would  prove  innumerable  ? 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

IN  discussing  the  objections  to  woman-suffrage 
from  the  intellectual  point  of  view,  it  is  necessary 
to  recur,  for  a  moment,  to  the  first  principles  of 
government.  In  all  governments  of  the  people, 
and  for  the  people,  the  intelligence  of  the  voters, 
who  are,  in  the  ultimate  resort,  the  ruling  power, 
is  the  all-important  consideration.  If  they  are 
lacking  in  this,  whatever  the  wealth  or  enterprise 
of  the  nation,  whatever  its  advantages  of  position, 
soil,  or  commerce,  it  is  destined  to  speedy  decay. 
If  its  voters  are  ignorant,  and  accustomed  to 
vote  at  the  dictation  of  others,  or  for  pay,  the 
government  soon  becomes  the  prey  of  corrupt 
aspirants  for  power  and  heartless  demagogues, 
who  will  use  it  for  their  own  base  purposes,  and 
having  secured  their  own  wealth  and  power  by 
its  means,  will  aid  in  its  overthrow.  It  is  owing 
to  the  ignorance  and  venality  of  the  masses  of 
voters,  that  no  Celtic  nation,  neither  the  French, 
Spanish,  Italian,  Portuguese,  or  Irish,  have  ever 
been  able  to  maintain  a  republican  government; 
and  to  the  same  cause  is  it  due,  that  Mexico  and  the 
Central  and  South  American  republics  have  been, 
ever  since  their  independence,  in  a  state  of  anarchy. 


OBJECTIONS    TO    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE.        £97 

Bad  men  have  always  been  able  to  rally  round 
them,  for  an  insurrection,  a  sufficient  force  of 
voters  whose  influence  in  their  favor  has  been 
gained,  either  by  plunder  already  seized  and  dis- 
tributed, or  by  promises  of  money  to  be  gained  by 
revolt ;  and  hence  these  countries  have  been  kept 
in  a  constant  state  of  revolution.  In  Chili,  which 
has  been  the  most  stable  of  the  South  American 
republics,  there  has  been  far  more  widely  diffused 
education,  and  though  too  many  of  the  voters  are 
venal,  they  are  generally  capable  of  understand- 
ing the  political  questions  at  issue.  In  the  Argen- 
tine Republic  the  enlightened  President,  Don  Die- 
go F.  Sarmiento,  has  become  so  fully  convinced  of 
the  absolute  necessity  of  intelligence  to  the  pre- 
servation of  the  national  existence  and  the  pro- 
motion of  the  nation's  prosperity,  that  he  is 
making  the  greatest  possible  efforts  for  the  educa- 
tion of  his  entire  people. 

Just  at  this  point  is  our  nation  in  its  greatest 
peril.  We  have  three  classes  of  voters  who  are 
every  year  endangering  our  national  existence  by 
their  ignorance,  venality,  and  the  facility  with 
which  they  may  be  influenced  and  led  by  evil  and 
designing  men.  These  three  classes  are :  the  low, 
brutish,  often  depraved,  and  always  ignorant  class 
of  voters  at  the  North,  mostly,  though  not  entire- 
ly, of  foreign  birth  or  parentage,  the  shoulder-hit- 
ters, plug-uglies,  dead  rabbits,  repeaters,  and  bum- 
mers, and,  with  them,  a  still  larger  class  of  sim- 
12 


298        OBJECTIONS    TO    WOMAN   SUFFRAGE. 

ilar  origin,  who,  though  ordinarily  peaceable  and 
quiet,  yet  always  vote  according  to  the  orders  of 
their  fugleman,  who  is  generally  a  pot-house  poli- 
tician, though,  sometimes,  an  aspiring  demagogue, 
like  Fernando  Wood  or  Captain  Bynders.  A  sec- 
ond class  is  the  "  poor  white  trash  "  of  the  South, 
intensely  ignorant,  brutish,  and  prejudiced",  who 
will  vote  every  time  according  to  the  instructions 
of  their  file  leaders,  and  by  whose  votes,  out- 
weighing those  of  more  intelligent  and  patriotic 
citizens,  the  South  was  lately  plunged  in  civil  war. 
Great  efforts  are  now  making  to  educate  and  ele- 
vate this  class,  and  they  may  be  successful  with 
the  children,  but  there  is  hardly  much  hope  for  the 
parents.  A  third  class  are  the  more  ignorant  and 
stupid  of  the  negroes,  who  are  at  present  very 
much  under  the  control  of  others,  and  incapable 
of  intelligent  and  thoughtful  action  on  political 
subjects.  Their  earnest  zeal  to  acquire  knowledge 
amid  the  obstacles  which  two  hundred  years  of 
slavery  have  engendered,  gives  us  good  reason  to 
hope  that,  in  a  few  years,  they  will  not  be  the 
lowest  class  in  point  of  intelligence.  We  have 
shown  already,  that,  while  a  portion  of  the  edu- 
cated and  intelligent  class  of  women  would  prob- 
ably vote,  if  woman-suffrage  were  granted,  by  far 
the  larger  part  of  the  votes  would  come  from 
domestic  servants,  factory  girls,  unskilled  or  par- 
tially skilled  female  laborers,  and  the  depraved 
and  vicious  classes,  all  of  whom,  with  but  few 


OBJECTIONS    TO    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE.        299 

exceptions,  would  either  vote  under  the  influence 
and  at  the  dictation  of  others,  or  for  the  party  or 
politician  which  would  pay  them  best.  This  addi- 
tion of  so  vast  a  body  of  unintelligent  and  pur- 
chasable voters — many  of  them,  it  is  to  be  feared, 
from  the  facility  with  which  they  could  disguise 
themselves,  voting  several  times  at  each  election 
— to  our  already  excessive  number  of  this  class, 
would  be  certain  to  swamp  the  nation  in  speedy 
ruin.  No  government  on  earth  could  exist  a  score 
of  years  with  such  masses  of  easily  influenced 
and  venal-  voters.  And  the  evil  is  likely  to  be 
still  further  aggravated  by  the  speedy  influx  of 
immense  numbers  of  Chinese,  both  men  and 
women  (the  latter  having  the  worst  possible%ep- 
utation  for  depravity),  who  would,  in  the  event 
of  the  passage  of  an  amendment  to  the  State  con- 
stitutions permitting  woman-suffrage,  become  voters 
at  the  end  of  five  years  after  their  arrival,  and 
would  inevitably  cast  their  votes  for  pay,  and  so, 
almost  necessarily,  for  the  most  corrupt  politicians 
to  be  found. 

If  we  are  to  have  universal  suffrage,  let  us  by  all 
means  have,  first,  universal  education,  compulsory, 
if  need  be,  to  fit  our  prospective  voters  for  their 
duties.  Universal  suffrage,  where  each  voter  ful- 
ly understood  the  issues  to  be  voted  upon,  and 
acted  conscientiously,  might  not  be  attended  with 
many  serious  evils ;  but  universal  suffrage,  where 
three-fourths  of  the  voters  could  be  purchased  or 


300         OBJECTIONS   TO   WOMAN   SUFFRAGE. 

influenced  by  men  devoid  of  principle,  would  be 
the  ruin  of  our  country. 

The  objections  to  woman-suffrage  from  the 
moral  point  of  view  are  numerous  and  weighty. 

There  is  among  the  acquaintances  of  almost 
every  upright  and  true  man,  some  woman  (per- 
haps more  than  one),  upon  whom  he  looks  as  upon 
a  vision  of  the  lost  Eden.  Her  purity  and  inno- 
cence, her  exemplary  fulfillment  of  all  the 
sacred  duties  of  wife  and  mother,  her  genuine 
piety  and  modesty,  fill  his  soul  with  respect  and 
admiration.  Such  pure  and  excellent  women  in 
these  days  of  fashionable  education,  frivolous 
accomplishments,  and  extravagance  in  dress  and 
display,  are  unhappily  less  numerous  than  they 
once  were  ;  but  enough  are  yet  left  to  make  this 
world  a  desirable  dwelling-place.  Who  would  be 
willing  to  see  such  a  woman  descend  into  the  arena 
of  party  political  strife,  and  enter  upon  its  intrigues, 
its  heated  partisanships,  its  perilous  depths  of 
wickedness  ?  It  would  be  like  drawing  an  angel 
from  heaven,  to  plunge  him  in  the  world  of  woe  ! 

Yet  this  is  what  would  happen  often  if  women 
entered  upon  a  political  career.  We  have  all  seen 
an  ingenuous  youth,  the  soul  of  honor,  resolute  in 
his  integrity  and  virtuous  purposes,  plunge  into 
politics  as  his  life  employment.  How  long  was  it 
ere  he  had  learned  to  palter  with  words  in  a 
double  sense,  to  make  promises  which  he  could 
not  fulfill,  to  first  endure,  then  sanction,  then 


OBJECTIONS   TO   WOMAN    SUFFRAGE.        3Q1 

advocate  those  devious  courses  for  the  sake  of 
party,  which,  under  the  specious  plea  of  accom- 
plishing ultimate  good  by  the  success  of 'party 
measures,  make  politics  inconsistent  with  honesty, 
and  the  very  name  of  politician  odious  to  all  true 
men  ?  If  such  a  wreck  of  character  and  integrity 
in  man  has  made  us  sad,  how  much  more  would 
it  distress  us  to  see  a  pure,  good,  and  true  woman  fall 
into  the  same  snare  ?  Woman,  when  she  falls  away 
from  integrity  and  truth,  has  further  to  fall  than, 
man,  and  by  a  law  of  moral  gravitation,  she  falls 
faster  and  sinks  deeper. 

The  affectional  and  emotional  nature  is  so  much 
stronger  in  her  than  in  man  that,  in  whatever  she 
becomes  interested,  her  whole  soul  is  engaged.  Let 
her  once  become  occupied  with  politics,  and  the 
craft,  the  policy,  the  subterfuges,  the  ignominious 
party  tricks,  in  which  male  politicians  have  engag- 
ed, would  not  satisfy  her  for  a  moment.  Down- 
ward, and  still  downward  she  would  plunge,  till 
she  would  astonish  and  confound  her  male  associ- 
ates by  her  daring  and  reckless  audacity  in  the 
contrivance  of  party  schemes. 

In  most  of  the  monarchical  countries  of  Europe, 
though  women  have  not  voted,  some  of  them  have, 
at  one  time  or  another,  mingled  largely  in  political 
matters,  and  never  without  going  more  deeply 
into  the  mire  ;  proposing  and  audaciously  carrying 
through  measures  of  greater  iniquity  and  injustice, 
and  prompting  others  to  grosser  sins,  than  any 


302        OBJECTIONS    TO   WOMAN    SUFFRAGE. 

man  would  have  dared.  Yet  some  of  these  women 
in  their  youth  were  virtuous  and  pure-minded,  and 
were  dragged  down  from  their  lofty  position 
more  by  the  corrupting  influences  of  a  political 
life,  than  by  the  temptations  of  a  profligate  one. 

We  need  not  name  the  succession  of  mistresses 
of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  Louis  of  France, 
who  hastened  the  downfall  of  the  kingdom,  and 
made  the  horrors  of  the  French  Revolution  possi- 
ble ;  the  favorites  of  the  worthless  Charles  the 
Second  of  England,  and  his  equally  worthless 
successor ;  the  coarse,  vicious  women,  whom  the 
first,  second,  and  fourth  Georges  made  their 
confidants  and  advisers  ;  nor  such  restless  poli- 
ticians as  Christina  of  Sweden,  Catharine  II.  of 
Russia,  Christina  of  Spain,  and  the  Countess  of 
Lansfeldt  in  Bavaria.  Such  corruption  seems  an 
inevitable  result  of  an  active  participation  in  poli- 
tics ;  and  what  a  blight  would  it  cast  upon  families 
now  reared  in  purity  and  innocence  ?  How  could 
a  mother,  whose  whole  heart  was  absorbed  in 
political  strife,  teach  her  children  those  lessons  of 
integrity,  modesty,  and  truthfulness,  which  would 
come  most  appropriately  from  her  lips,  were  they 
untainted  by  political  corruption  ? 

In  its  effects  upon  the  morals  of  the  more  de- 
pendent classes,  woman-suffrage  seems  still  more 
objectionable.  Power  without  knowledge  is  always 
an  evil,  and  the  consciousness  on  the  part  of  the 
ignorant  and  prejudiced  servant-girl,  that  she  pos- 


OBJECTIONS    TO    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE.        3Q3 

sessed  a  privilege  which  made  her  in  some  sort 
the  peer  of  her  mistress,  would  so  stimulate  her 
pride,  self-sufficiency,  and  impertinence,  that  a 
class  already  almost  intolerable  from  these  quali- 
ties would  become  entirely  so,  and  a  social  revo- 
lution would  ensue.  The  intrigues  for  the  votes 
of  these  dependent  classes  would  tend  greatly  to 
their  demoralization,  for  where  all  regard  to 
truth,  honor,  and  right  is  banished  from  their 
action  on  political  questions,  and  the  party  ascend- 
ency is  achieved  by  the  most  unscrupulous  means, 
the  whole  moral  sense  is  weakened,  and  virtue  in 
all  its  relations  becomes  only  a  name. 

As  to  the  abandoned  class,  their  very  presence 
at  the  polls  will  be  an  outrage  on  the  public 
morals.  It  has  always  been,  and  very  properly, 
too,  a  rule  with  our  civil  authorities,  if  they  were 
unable  to  suppress  houses  of  prostitution,  at  least 
to  keep  their  inmates  from  practicing  their  voca- 
tion, or  tempting  others,  on  our  public  streets ;  and 
though  they  have  not  wholly  succeeded  in  this, 
yet  they  have  mainly  compelled  them  to  be  quiet, 
and,  by  frequent  arrests,  have  greatly  diminished 
the  practices  which  made  the  great  thoroughfares 
unsafe  for  honest  women  at  night.  But,  with  the 
proposed  woman-suffrage,  these  daughters  of 
shame  would  be  paraded  through  the  principal 
streets  in  the  day-time  in  squads,  and  their  influ- 
ence for  mischief  would  be  immense.  What  a 
lesson  of  evil  would  be  taught  our  children  on  an 


304          OBJECTIONS    TO    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE. 

election  day  !  These  poor  wretches,  bedizened  in 
gaudy  finery,  with  bold,  brazen  faces,  many  of 
them  half  or  wholly  drunk,  and  uttering,  with 
loud  laughter,  horrible  oaths  and  ribald  and 
obscene  jests,  what  impression  must  an  intelli- 
gent child  receive  in  regard  to  a  class  of  women 
of  whom  he  or  she  has  hitherto  known  nothing  ! 
If  the  virtuous  mother  seeks  to  ward  off  the 
evil  effects  of  such  a  sight  from  the  mind  of  the 
child,  by  saying  that  these  are  wicked,  bad  women, 
who  ought  not  to  be  allowed  to  walk  the  streets  in 
this  way,  how  will  she  be  appalled  by  the  answer : 
"  But,  mother,  they  are  going  to  vote.  If  they 
were  so  very  bad,  would  they  have  the  same  right 
to  vote  that  you  and  other  ladies  have  ?"  If  she 
attempts  to  explain  that  moral  character  has  noth- 
ing to  do  with  political  privileges,  will  she  not  be 
met  again  with  the  inquiry  :  "  But,  mother,  what 
makes  the  government  so  bad,  that  they  have  to 
let  such  bad  women  vote  and  help  make  the 
laws  ?"  The  mother  will  be  in  a  dilemma — either 
she  must  recognize  these  abandoned  women  as  her 
associates  in  political  privilege,  and  thus  break 
down  the  ideas  of  moral  purity  and  virtue  which 
she  has  attempted  to  establish  in  the  minds  of  her 
children,  or  she  must  condemn  the  government  of 
her  country  for  adopting  the  very  measure  which 
she  and  her  friends  have  clamored  for.  The  asso- 
ciation with  these  depraved  and  vicious  women  at 
the  polls,  will,  in  itself,  be  a  great  source  of 


OBJECTIONS    TO    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE.          397 

demoralization  to  men  as  well  as  women.  It  is 
bad  enough  to  have  a  drunken,  profane  rowdy 
near  you  in  the  line  of  voters,  for  an  hour  or 
more,  while  you  are  waiting  your  turn  to  deposit 
your  vote  ;  but,  as  most  of  these  fellows  have,  at 
one  time  or  another,  been  in  State  prison,  you  can, 
if  too  much  annoyed,  generally  get  him  challenged 
off;  but  to  be  obliged  for  an  hour  to  stand  in  line 
with  a  drunken  and  noisy  prostitute,  compelled  to 
listen  to  her  foul  ravings,  and  to  know  that  she 
has  the  same  legal  right  to  vote  with  yourself,  and 
that  her  vote  can  neutralize  that  of  the  best  and 
purest  man  in  the  land,  is  intolerable,  and  must 
disgust  every  thoughtful,  sensible  citizen  with 
universal  suffrage.  On  the  young  voter,  it  must 
have  one  of  two  effects  ;  either  it  will  disgust  him 
with  the  government,  or  it  will  lead  him  astray 
to  follow  these  abandoned  creatures.  But  there 
is  another  phase  of  the  question  which  has  its 
moral  bearings  also.  The  privilege  of  woman-suf- 
frage implies  also  the  right  to  hold  office  and  to 
seek  official  position.  The  thirst  for  office  is  at 
once  the  most  engrossing  and  the  most  groveling  of 
human  passions.  Daniel  D.  Tompkins,  once  Gov- 
ernor of  New  York,  and  Vice-President  of  the 
United  States,  said,  late  in  life,  and  he  spoke  from 
experience  :  "  Let  a  man  once  entertain  the  'idea 
that  he  may  win  the  presidency  of  the  United 
States,  and  there  is  nothing  he  will  not  sacrifice 

for  the  purpose  of  attaining  it.     His  property,  his 
12*  s 


308         OBJECTIONS    TO    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE. 

dearest  friends,  his  own  family,  the  shortening  of 
his  life,  and  his  soul's  eternal  salvation,  would  all  go 
freely,  if  by  their  loss  he  could  obtain  the  place 
he  strove  for."  And  for  much  lower  places,  how 
many  have  sacrificed  all  these.  With  her  more 
ardent  and  impulsive  nature,  can  we  doubt  that 
woman  would  be,  at  least,  as  zealous  in  seeking 
office  as  man. 

Let  us  inquire  briefly  into  the  way  in  which 
nominations  for  official  positions,  such  as  members 
of  the  State  Assembly  or  Senate,  members  of  Con- 
gress, State  officers,  &c.,  are  secured.  In  a  late 
speech,  Miss  Anna  Dickinson  avowed  her  belief 
that  within  ten  years  she  should  be  a  member  of 
Congress.  For  the  sake  of  illustration,  we  will 
suppose  that  woman-suffrage  having  been  granted 
in  Pennsylvania,  a  warm  personal  and  political 
friend  of  Miss  Dickinson,  a  lady  of  Philadelphia 
(Miss  D.'s  home),  is  desirous  that  her  friend  should 
receive  the  nomination  for  Congress.  What  must 
she  do  to  bring  about  such  a  result  ? 

She  must  first  secure  the  primaries.  Our  fair 
friends  may  not  exactly  understand  what  this 
means.  We  will  explain.  All  these  nominations  for 
legislative,  State,  or  Congressional  positions,  are 
made  by  party  conventions,  composed  of  delegates 
chosen  at  meetings  of  the  voters  of  that  party,  or 
a  portion  of  them,  in  each  voting  precinct.  These 
meetings  for  the  choice  of  delegates  to  the  con- 
ventions are  called  primaries. 


HIE   WIFE   AND  MOTHER   AT    A    PRIMARY 


HE  FATHEK  STATS  AT  HOME,  ATTENDING  TO  THE  CHILDREN. 


OBJECTIONS    TO    WOMAN   SUFFRAGE.         3Q9 

In  the  cities  the  number  of  voters  to  a  precinct 
usually  ranges  from  four  to  eight  hundred.  Of 
course,  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  any  very  large 
proportion  of  these  will  come  out  to  the  primary 
meetings  for  the  nomination  of  delegates. 

In  truth,  only  the  political  managers  of  the  pre- 
cinct, and  the  bullies,  rowdies,  pot-house  poli- 
ticians, and  roughs  of  the  party — those  who  can 
influence  the  votes  of  the  more  ignorant  and 
vicious  classes — are  usually  present,  and  the  can- 
didates for  Congress,  or  their  friends,  begin  the 
struggle  there,  for  delegates  to  the  nominating 
convention  who  will  vote  for  them.  Too  often 
these  primaries  are  places  where  open  bids  are 
made  by  the  candidates  for  support.  The  ques- 
tions are  put  plumply :  "  Ef  I  vote  for  ye  in  the 
convintion,  will  ye  git  my  brother  a  place  in 
the  Custom-House  ?"  "  Will  ye  git  me  appointed 
weigher  or  gauger  ?"  and  so  on.  The  candidate 
or  his  friends  who  make  the  most  liberal  bids  and 
promises,  or  who  pay  the  most  money,  get  the 
delegates  from  that  primary,  and  the  same  thing 
is  repeated  throughout  the  district.  Often  very 
heavy  sums  are  paid  to  secure  the  nomination. 

Attempts  have  been  made  repeatedly  to  improve 
these  primaries.  Good  and  high-minded  citizens 
have  sometimes  gone  to  them  in  considerable  num- 
bers, to  attempt  to  control  them,  and  secure  the 
nomination  of  good  men  who  would  not  bribe  the 
delegates,  either  with  money  or  promises  ;  but  it 


310        OBJECTIONS   TO   WOMAN   SUFFRAGE. 

has  all  been  in  vain ;  the  rowdy  class  do,  and  will, 
control  them,  and  nearly  as  much  in  one  party  as 
the  other. 

It  is  not  reasonable  to  suppose  that  they  would 
be  any  better  if  woman-suffrage  was  inaugurated. 
Indeed,  there  is  every  reason  to  suppose  that  they 
would  be  worse,  since  the  number  of  voters  of  the 
ignorant  and  vicious  classes  would  be  so  greatly 
increased.  Our  fair  friend,  therefore,  if  a  wife 
arid  mother,  leaving  her  husband  at  home  to  care 
for  the  children,  sallies  out,  of  a  dark  night,  to 
visit  one  or  two  of  these  primaries.  It  is  her  first 
visit  to  them,  and  it  will  be  likely  to  be  her  last 
one.  Entering,  she  finds  herself  surrounded  by  a 
fierce,  ruffianly  crew,  men  and  women,  who  look 
with  suspicion  on  her  neat  and  becoming  dress, 
and  are  prejudiced  against  her  at  the  outset  from 
this  cause.  Confusion  worse  confounded  reigns  in 
the  room,  and  the  air  is  redolent  with  the  per- 
fumes of  vile  whisky,  cheap  tobacco,  and  garlic. 

It  is  some  time  before  she  can  comprehend  at 
all  what  is  the  cause  of  the  hubbub ;  but  she 
finally  ascertains  that  the  primary  is  not  yet  or- 
ganized, but  that  the  keeper  of  a  dance-house  is 
discussing  his  own  claims  to  be  a  delegate,  with 
the  leader  of  a  gang  of  workhouse  women,  both 
agreeing,  however,  that  they  will  only  vote  for 
the  candidate  who  will  promise  to  get  for  them 
some  appointment  by  which  they  can  plunder 
the  government.  The  keeper  of  a  grog-shop  urges 


OBJECTIONS    TO   WOMAN    SUFFRAGE.         3^3 

his  claims,  but  wants  a  chance  to  get  in  what 
whisky  he  needs  for  his  business  without  paying 
the  revenue  tax  on  it. 

The  meeting  is  at  last  organized,  by  the  choice 
of  a  noted  brothel-keeper  as  chairman,  and  the 
cashier  of  a  drinking-saloon  as  clerk.  The  nomi- 
nation of  delegates  being  in  order,  our  fair  friend, 
who  is  not  quite  at  home  in  the  mode  of  pro- 
cedure, begins  to  canvass  among  the  would-be 
delegates  in  behalf  of  Miss  Dickinson,  unaware 
that  she  should  have  previously  secured  her  can- 
didate for  delegate  from  among  the  motley  crew, 
and  having  made  him  pledge  himself  to  vote  for 
Miss  Dickinson,  and  her  only,  have  put  him  for- 
ward in  the  fight.  Miss  Dickinson's  name  is 
received  with  shouts  of  derisive  laughter  or 
abusive  epithets ;  and  when  one  of  the  proposed 
delegates  somewhat  hesitatingly  inquires,  "  But 
what'll  she  do  for  us  ;  will  she  come  down  with 
the  spondulicks  ?"  he  is  at  once  checked  by  some 
of  the  reprobate  class,  with,  "  Hold  your  tongue. 
She's  smart  enough,  may  be  ;  but  she  ain't  one 
of  our  sort."  Disheartened,  discouraged,  and 
frightened,  Miss  Dickinson's  friend  slips  out  of 
the  room  as  soon  as  possible,  and  with  quick  steps, 
and  panting  for  breath,  reaches  her  own  home. 
Two  or  three  days  later  she  finds  that  some  sharp, 
unprincipled  politician,  it  matters  not  of  which 
sex,  is  nominated,  and  that  Miss  Dickinson  is  not 
even  mentioned  in  the  convention. 


314        OBJECTIONS    TO    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE. 

This  is  no  overdrawn  picture.  In  the  rural 
districts  the  corruption  and  villainy  are  not  so 
open,  and  perhaps  not  so  prevalent ;  but  in  the 
cities,  the  primaries,  which  must  be  placated  if  a 
nomination  is  to  be  obtained,  are  nests  of  unclean 
birds,  festering  pit-holes  of  all  iniquity.  Is  it 
possible  to  touch  pitch  and  not  be  defiled  ? 

But,  we  may  be  told,  in  the  West,  this  system 
of  primaries  is  not  in  vogue.  There,  the  candidate 
nominates  himself,  or  is  nominated  by  his  friends, 
and  then  "  takes  the  stump,"  or  visits  each  town 
or  voting  precinct,  often  in  company  with  the 
opposing  candidate,  and  publicly  discusses  with 
his  opponent  the  political  issues  of  the  election. 
These  stump-speeches  are  usually  made  in  the 
open  air,  when  the  weather  is  such  as  will  admit 
of  it,  and  generally  the  speaker  who  has  the 
strongest  lungs,  and  the  most  taking  way  with 
the  masses,  wins  the  victory. 

Let  us  suppose,  for  a  moment,  that  woman-suf- 
frage being  granted,  a  woman  of  decided  intellect- 
ual ability,  and,  if  you  please,  accustomed  to 
public  speaking  in  halls  or  lecture-rooms,  were  to 
be  the  nominee  of  one  party  for  governor,  and  a 
man  of  like  ability  the  candidate  of  the  other, 
and  that  they  u  stump  the  State  "  together.  A 
woman  could  have  no  more  unfavorable  opportu- 
nity of  displaying  her  eloquence  than  a  large  open 
air  meeting.  To  enable  her  audience  to  hear,  her 
voice  must  be  pitched  on  so  high  a  key  that  her 


OBJECTIONS    TO    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE. 

finest  passages  will  come  out  with  a  shriek,  and 
the  whole  effect  will  be  unpleasant.  In  these  days 
of  weak  throats,  too,  it  would  be  difficult  to  find 
a  woman  who  could  stand  the  strain  of  a  cam- 
paign. Then,  in  a  discussion  of  that  sort,  sup- 
posing the  two  parties  to  possess  equal  abilities, 
the  man  would  have  the  advantage,  from  the 
greater  excitability  of  the  woman.  The  result 
could  hardly  fail  to  be  against  her.  The  high- 
pitched  treble  voice  always  wearies  a  crowd  very 
soon,  and  the  bold  position  which  the  female  can- 
didate would  be  obliged  to  take  would  deprive 
her  of  the  respect  due,  under  other  circumstances, 
to  her  womanhood  ;  while  the  moral  effect  of  such 
an  exhibition  could  not  but  be  injurious  to  all  who 
witnessed  it. 

But  suppose  it  possible  that  a  woman  of  high 
character  could  run  the  gauntlet  of  the  primaries 
and  the  nominating  conventions,  and  finally  obtain 
an  election.  The  perils  to  her  moral  nature  are 
but  just  begun.  If  she  is  elected  to  the  State 
Legislature  she  will  be  plied  with  a  thousand 
temptations  to  act  corruptly  in  regard  to  railroad 
charters  and  provisions,  State  aid  to  them,  city 
appropriations,  and  a  host  of  other  bills  in  which 
she  will  be  told  there  is  money ;  bribes,  direct 
and  indirect,  will  be  offered  her  daily,  to  do  or  to 
refrain  from  doing  something,  or  to  vote  or  not  to 
vote  for  somebody.  Attempts  have  been  made 
by  exposures,  denunciations,  committees  of  in- 


316         OBJECTIONS   TO   WOMAN    SUFFRAGE. 

quiry,  and  in  all  other  ways,  to  break  up  the 
corruption  and  venality  of  our  legislatures  ;  yet 
each  one  seems  worse  than  its  predecessor.  That 
members  of  Congress,  both  Senators  and  Repre- 
sentatives, are  too  often  corrupt,  and  amass  great 
wealth  through  their  adroitness,  is,  unfortunately, 
too  well  known  to  admit  of  doubt.  Could  we 
hope  that  women,  who  are  admitted  to  be  the 
most  skillful  of  lobbyists,  would  be  able  to  resist 
these  manifold  temptations  ? 

For  the  rest,  we  should  hardly  expect  women 
to  be  very  successful  as  legislators,  either  in  the 
State  legislatures  or  in  Congress.  Their  prone- 
ness  to  discuss  all  questions  (i.  e.  the  class  who 
would  be  most  likely  to  achieve  an  election), 
their  impulsiveness,  their  tendency  to  be  influ- 
enced to  wrong  action  by  appeals  to  their  sympa- 
thies, and  the  impatience  with  which  they  would 
be  listened  to,  would  all  be  against  them.  A  sen- 
sible woman  would  hardly  seek  a  place  in  any  of 
our  legislative  bodies. 

The  skill  and  tact  which  women  have  on  many 
occasions  manifested  in  diplomacy,  when  they 
have  been  secretly  intrusted  with  diplomatic 
duties,  has  led  some  to  suppose  that  they  would 
be  eminently  successful  as  embassadors.  We 
can  not  coincide  in  that  opinion.  Were  diplomacy 
now  what  the  Italian  diplomatist  represented  it, 
the  art  of  skillful  deception,  we  could  imagine 
that  a  smart,  intriguing  woman,  might  achieve 


OBJECTIONS   TO    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE. 

some  distinction  in  it,  though  at  the  expense  of 
her  own  character  for  truthfulness  and  integrity  ; 
but  diplomacy  new  requires  the  highest  gifts  of 
coolness,  imperturbability,  thorough  statesman- 
ship, profound  political  knowledge,  patriotism, 
sound  judgment,  and  quick  perception ;  qualities 
all  of  which  few  women  can  be  supposed  to  pos- 
sess, and  these  few  would,  without  exception,  be 
averse  to  occupying  such  a  position.  The  skillful 
and  statesmanlike  management  of  our  ministers 
in  England  and  France  during  the  late  war,  saved 
us,  more  than  once,  from  threatened  war  with 
those  powers  at  a  time  when  such  a  misfortune 
would  have  well  nigh  proved  fatal  to  our  national 
existence.  Does  any  one  believe  that  we  could 
have  safely  replaced  Mr.  Adams,  Mr.  Dayton,  or 
Mr.  Bigelow,  by  any  female  diplomatist  in  our 
country  ?  No  !  We  shall  hope  to  be  spared  the 
sight  of  that  day  when  a  woman,  however  gifted, 
shall  be  our  embassador  at  the  court  of  the  Tuil- 
eries,  or  at  that  of  St.  James. 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

HAVING  thus  fully  stated  the  objections  which 
seem  to  us  conclusive  against  the  admission  of 
woman-suffrage,  we  will  next  proceed  to  reply  to 
such  of  the  arguments  advanced  in  favor  of 
it  by  its  advocates,  as  have  not  been  already 
met  in  our  previous  examination  of  the  subject. 

We  begin  with  Mr.  J.  Stuart  Mill's  position, 
which,  in  his  work,  is  the  basis  of  all  his  argu- 
ments in  favor  of  woman-suffrage  :  the  substan- 
tial equality  of  woman  with  man,  in  all  re- 
spects. Mr.  Mill,  indeed,  admits  that,  in  physical 
power,  woman  is  generally  the  inferior  of  man, 
and  that  his  claim  of  authority,  and  her  condition 
of  subjection,  are  both  based  on  his  possession  of 
a  superior  amount  of  brute  force.  In  all  other 
respects,  he  contends,  that,  under  the  greatest 
disadvantages,  woman  has  proved  herself  the  equal 
of  man,  and  that,  therefore,  she  should  have  the- 
right  of  suffrage  to  protect  herself  from  the 
oppression  of  his  brute  force. 

That  a  logician  so  astute,  a  thinker  usually  so 
calm  and  dispassionate  as  Mr.  Mill,  should  have 
been  led  astray  by  such  evident  fallacies  as  are 
contained  in  this  proposition,  is  only  a  confirma- 


ARGUMENTS  FOR   WOMAN   SUFFRAGE.      321 

tion  of  the  ancient  proyerb,  "  Great  men  are  not 
always  wise."  Mr.  Mill,  as  a  professed  deist, 
ignores  the  scriptural  account  of  the  creation  of 
woman,  and  thus  fails  to  discern  the  original  de- 
sign and  purpose  of  her  Creator,  in  placing  her  in  a 
subject  relation  to  man,  that  she  might  be  the  com- 
plement of  his  nature,  and  that  the  two  together 
might  form  the  unit  of  a  perfected  humanity.  To 
him,  too,  the  comment  of  the  apostle  Paul,  on 
this  design  of  God  in  the  creation,  is  of  no  sig- 
nificance, "  For  the  man  is  not  of  the  woman,  but 
the  woman  of  the  man.  Neither  was  the  man 
created  for  the  woman ;  but  the  woman  for  the 
man"  (1  Cor.,  xi.  8,  9).  And  yet,  in  these  words, 
he  would  have  found  the  key  to  the  mystery 
which  so  stumbles  him.  Taking  the  history  of 
the  past,  and  the  status  of  woman  in  the  present,  he 
finds  that  she  has  been,  in  all  the  historic  ages,  in  a 
subject  condition;  that  in  savage,  and  sometimes 
even  in  civilized  nations,  this  condition  has  been  the 
result  of  the  exercise  of  brute  force  ;  in  other  and 
more  enlightened  nations,  it  has  been  maintained 
mostly  by  the  exertion  of  a  stern  and  dominant 
will.  Never,  according  to  his  own  testimony,  has 
there  been,  to  any  appreciable  extent,  an  excep- 
tion to  this  subject  condition  of  women.  From  his 
own  stand-point,  taking  no  cognizance  of  the 
divine  revelation,  would  it  not  have  been  more 
philosophical  for  him  to  have  inquired  why,  if 
there  was  no  just  cause  for  it,  this  condition  of 


322     ARGUMENTS   FOR   WOMAN    SUFFRAGE. 

subjection  had  always  existed  ?  No  class  of  rea- 
soners  are  so  ready,  as  those  with  whom  Mr.  Mill 
is  affiliated,  to  deduce  a  general  law  from  ages  of 
unbroken  custom.  Why  can  not  he  see  that  there 
must  have  been  some  reason,  other  than  the  mere 
brutal  instincts  of  man,  why  women  should  have, 
throughout  all  time,  remained  in  this  subject  con- 
dition, and  why  they  should,  in  all  ages,  have 
acquiesced  in  it  ?  Again,  while  he  admits  the 
physical  inferiority  of  woman,*  is  he  not  led  to 
inquire,  whether  this  very  condition  of  body,  in 
which  grace  takes  the  place  of  strength,  beauty 
that  of  dignity,  and  the  whole  frame  indicates 
how  diverse  is  its  purpose,  object,  and  aim  from 
that  of  man,  does  not  of  itself  teach  that,  as  in 
the  physical  so  in  the  mental  and  moral  structure, 
woman  and  man  have  their  distinct  and  differ- 
ing spheres  of  action,  and  that,  occupying  these, 
there  can  be  no  more  question  of  equality,  supe- 
riority, or  inferiority,  than  between  any  two  ob- 
jects of  entirely  differing,  and  yet  complement- 
ary natures?  The  rind  of  an  orange  differs  in 
form,  color,  and  consistency,  from  the  pulp ;  yet 
one  is  as  necessary  as  the  other  to  the  making  up 
of  the  complete  orange ;  and,  while  the  pulp  is 
inferior  in  position  to  the  rind,  we  can  not  say  of 
either,  that  it  is  or  is  not  equal  to  the  other.  The 
one  is  the  complement  of  the  other. 

It  would  seem  that  a  man  of  Mr.  Mill's  astute- 

>  See  Appendix  B. 


ARGUMENTS   FOR   WOMAN    SUFFRAGE.     323 

ness  ought  to  have  seen  this ;  yet,  had  he  recog- 
nized it,  he  would  at  once  have  comprehended 
that,  when  he  relinquished  the  idea  of  woman's 
equality  with  man,  and  substituted  for  it  the  view 
of  her  complementary  nature,  the  argument  for 
suffrage  from  equality  must  fall  at  once  to  the 
ground.  As  the  other  part  of  himself,  woman  can 
have  no  claim  to  a  separate  representation — a  dis- 
tinct vote  from  man — for  she  is  represented  in  his 
representation — she  votes  through  him.  There 
can  be  no  antagonisms,  no  conflicting  interests 
between  man  and  woman  in  this  relation,  if  right- 
ly understood,  and  hence,  no  occasion  for  the 
woman  to  protect  herself  from  the  aggressions  of 
the  man,  more  than  of  the  man  to  protect  himself 
from  the  aggressions  of  the  woman.  They  have 
a  common  interest  from  their  common  nature. 

That  this  community  of  nature  and  of  interest 
has  not  been  fully  recognized  in  the  past,  and  is 
not,  by  all  classes,  at  the  present  time,  is  un- 
doubtedly true,  and  is  a  misfortune  of  the  sex ; 
yet  it  would  be  a  very  absurd  remedy  for  this 
want  of  recognition,  to  endow  the  woman  with  the 
ballot,  when  her  tyrant  (as  Mr.  Mill  would  call 
the  man)  possessed  the  same  right,  and  when  her 
possession  of  it,  leaving  her  still  in  a  hopeless 
minority,  would  only  afford  the  opportunity  of 
adding  insult  to  her  previous  injuries. 

There  is,  moreover,  good  reason  to  believe  that 
this  community  of  nature  and  interests,  between 


324     ARGUMENTS    FOR    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE. 

the  two  sexes,  is  coming  to  be  better  understood, 
and  that  in  the  not  distant  future  it  will  be  re- 
garded by  all  intelligent  men  and  women  as  the 
basis  of  all  their  relations  to  each  other. 

But  Mr.  Mill,  as  if  aware  of  the  weakness  of  his 
previous  argument,  of  the  equality  of  the  sexes, 
proceeds  with  other  arguments  in  favor  of  woman- 
suffrage,  some  of  them  a  little  inconsistent  with 
his  doctrine  of  equality.  "  Their  right  to  both 
parliamentary  and  municipal  suffrage"  is,  he  says, 
"  entirely  independent  of  any  question  which  can 
be  raised  concerning  their  faculties.  The  right  to 
share  in  the  choice  of  those  who  are  to  exercise 
a  public  trust,  is  altogether  a  distinct  thing  from 
that  of  competing  for  the  trust  itself.  If  no  one 
could  vote  for  a  member  of  Parliament  who  was  not 
fit  to  be  a  candidate,  the  government  would  be  a 
narrow  oligarchy  indeed.  To  have  a  voice  in 
choosing  those  by  whom  one  is  to  be  governed,  is 
a  means  of  self-protection  due  to  every  one,  though 
he  were  to  remain  forever  excluded  from  the 
function  of  governing ;  and  that  women  are  con- 
sidered fit  to  have  such  a  choice,  may  be  presumed 
from  the  fact  that  the  law  already  gives  it  to 
women  in  the  most  important  of  all  cases  to  them- 
selves— for  the  choice  of  the  man  who  is  to  govern 
a  woman  to  the  end  of  her  life  is  always  supposed 
to  be  voluntarily  made  by  herself.  In  the  case 
of  election  to  public  trusts,  it  is  the  business  of 
constitutional  law  to  surround  the  right  of  suffrage 


ARGUMENTS    FOE    WOMAN   SUFFRAGE.     325 

with  all  needful  securities  and  limitations ;  but 
whatever  securities  are  sufficient  in  the  case  of  the 
male  sex,  no  others  need  be  required  in  the  case 
of  women.  Under  whatever  conditions,  and  within 
whatever  limits,  men  are  admitted  to  the  suffrage, 
there  is  not  a  shadow  of  justification  for  not 
admitting  women  under  the  same.  The  majority 
of  the  women  of  any  class  are  not  likely  to  differ 
in  political  opinion  from  the  majority  of  the  men 
of  the  same  class,  unless  the  question  be  one  in 
which  the  interests  of  women,  as  such,  are  in  some 
way  involved ;  and  if  they  are  so,  women  require 
the  suffrage  as  their  guarantee  of  just  and  equal 
consideration.  This  ought  to  be  obvious  even  to 
those  who  coincide  in  no  other  of  the  doctrines  for 
which  I  contend.  Even  if  every  woman  were  a 
wife,  and  if  every  wife  ought  to  be  a  slave,  all  the 
more  would  these  slaves  stand  in  need  of  legal 
protection ;  and  we  know  what  legal  protection 
the  slaves  have  where  the  laws  are  made  by  their 
masters."  , 

Some  portions  of  this  argument  are  more 
plausible  in  their  application  to  woman-suffrage  in 
England,  where,  even  under  the  new  Reform  law, 
none  but  property-holders  have  a  vote,  and  where 
the  dependent  and  vicious  classes  of  women  would 
not  be  allowed  the  suffrage  under  any  circum- 
stances, than  to  this  country,  where  all  classes 
(in  the  event  of  the  permission  of  woman-suffrage) 
would  be  allowed  to  vote.  But  there  is,  never 


326    ARGUMENTS   FOR   WOMAN   SUFFRAGE. 

theless,  an  amount  of  sophistry  in  it  which  is  per- 
fectly astonishing.  It  is  doubtless  true  that  in 
England  many  vote  for  members  of  Parliament, 
who  would  not,  and  under  any  circumstances  could 
not,  be  candidates  for  seats  in  that  body ;  but  here 
the  theory  of  our  government  is,  that  every  citizen 
who  votes  is,  in  some  sort,  eligible  to  any  elective 
office  in  the  government.  There  are  undoubtedly 
exceptions  to  this  in  actual  practice,  though  none 
which  must  be  so  of  necessity ;  but  the  doctrine 
of  one  qualification  for  voters,  and  another,  greatly 
higher  and  belonging  to  a  different  class,  for 
office-holders,  would  not  be  tolerated  for  a  moment 
here. 

So,  too,  his  statement  that  "  the  majority  of  the 
women  of  any  class  are  not  likely  to  differ  in  opin- 
ion from  the  majority  of  the  men  of  the  same  class," 
may  be  partially,  though  not  wholly  true,  in  Eng- 
land, where  only  the  more  intelligent  men  and 
women,  and  those  holding  property,  would  be  al- 
lowed to  vote ;  but  it  is  very  far  from  being  true 
here,  where  many  classes  of  women  would  vote  un- 
der influence,  or  for  pay,  while  the  men  of  a  cor- 
responding class  would  very  often  have  some  polit- 
ical principle  to  guide  them.  But  it  is  very  singu- 
lar to  hear  Mr.  Mill,  who  is  strongly  opposed  to 
any  votes  being  cast  under  influence,  make 
such  a  statement,  which  implies  distinctly  that 
the  women  would  usually  vote  under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  men  of  their  class ;  and  it  is  still  more 


ARGUMENTS    FOR    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE.     327 

singular  to  hear  him,  after  an  elaborate  argument 
to  prove  that  woman  ought  not  to  be  in  subjection 
to  man  at  all,  speak  of  her  voluntarily  making 
choice  of  the  man  who  is  to  govern  her  to  the  end 
of  her  life.  He  is  also  sadly  unfortunate  in  the 
choice  of  his  illustration  ;  for  neither  in  England 
nor  France,  if  the  ablest  writers  of  both  countries, 
and  the  vast  weight  of  testimony  are  to  be  believed, 
is  the  woman's  choice  of  a  husband,  in  a  majority 
of  instances,  a  voluntary  one.  A  voluntary  choice 
implies  the  power  of  actively  making  a  selection ; 
at  the  best,  except  in  the  case  of  the  sovereign, 
the  woman  has  only  the  power  of  accepting  or 
refusing  the  hand  offered  her,  not  of  selecting 
such  a  one  as  she  might  have  desired ;  and  how 
few  are  the  instances  in  which  the  wishes  of  pa- 
rents or  friends,  ambitious  desires  for  wealth, 
equipage,  or  display,  the  wish  to  be  the  mistress 
of  a  home,  or  the  fear  of  not  receiving  a  more 
eligible  offer,  do  not  exert  a  controlling  influence 
in  the  matter  ? 

Nor  can  we  regard  without  surprise  his  asser- 
tion, that  "  women  require  the  suffrage  (in  matters 
relating  to  their  interests  as  women)  as  their 
guaranty  of  just  and  equal  consideration."  It  can 
not  be  possible  that  Mr.  Mill  supposes  for  an 
instant  that  any  sufficient  number  of  women  could 
or  would  vote  in  Great  Britain,  to  give  them  the 
control,  either  in  a  single  borough  or  in  Parlia- 
ment j  and  unless  they  obtained  such  a  control, 

13  T 


328    ARGUMENTS   FOB    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE. 

would  they  not,  as  a  hopeless  minority,  be  in  a 
worse  position,  so  far  as  any  "  guaranty  of  just 
and  equal  consideration  "  was  concerned,  than  if 
they  were  without  suffrage  ? 

We  have  shown,  we  think,  clearly,  that  under 
the  true  idea  of  society — that  which  regards  the 
family,  and  not  the  individual,  as  the  unit  of  it — 
there  can  be  no  occasion  for  women,  as  women,  to 
vote,  since  they  are  already  represented  ;  and  we 
may  add  that,  any  attempt  at  voting  on  their  part, 
while  it  would  place  them  in  a  condition  of  unnat- 
ural and  needless  antagonism  to  man,  would,  by 
releasing  him  from  the  responsibility  he  now  feels 
to  legislate  for  their  good,  make  their  situation  in 
every  respect  worse  than  it  now  is. 

Another  argument  which  the  friends  of  woman- 
suffrage  have  continually  urged  in  behalf  of  their 
favorite  measure  has  been,  that  woman,  by  her 
presence  at  the  polls  and  in  our  political  gatherings, 
legislatures,  &c.,  would  exert  a  refining  and  puri- 
fying influence  upon  our  politics.  It  is  even 
stated  that  Mr.  Beecher  has  more  than  once 
brought  forward  this  argument  for  woman-suf- 
frage. We  can  hardly  credit  it ;  for  we  have  too 
high  an  opinion  of  his  knowledge  of  human  nature 
to  believe  that  he  could  deliberately  utter  such  an 
absurdity.  The  snow  falls  upon  the  city  pure  and 
white,  and  for  the  moment  it  seems  to  have 
invested  it  with  its  own  purity.  But,  in  a  day  or 
two  at  the  farthest,  this  very  snow,  smirched  and 


ARGUMENTS    FOR   WOMAN    SUFFRAGE.     329 

foul  from  the  mud  and  filth  with  which  it  has 
mingled,  becomes  even  more  offensive  to  the  eye 
than  the  foul  streets  of  the  city  were  before  it 
descended,  and  we  give  a  sigh  of  relief  when  it 
disappears. 

So  would  it  be  with  women  after  mingling  in 
political  life,  and  marching  to  the  polls  once  or 
twice,  even  had  they  been  previously  all  as  pure 
as  the  driven  snow.  But  no  one  knows  better 
than  Mr.  Beecher,  that  with  our  system  of  univer- 
sal suffrage,  there  would  be  more  bad  than  good 
women  to  take  part  in  the  ballot;  not,  perhaps, 
that  there  are  more  ignorant  and  depraved  than 
good  women  in  the  community  (we  hope  not,  cer- 
tainly), but  that  very  many  of  the  good  and  pure 
women  would  stay  at  home,  while  the  bad  women 
would  all  come  to  the  polls  under  the  various  influ- 
ences which  would  be  exerted  to  bring  them  out. 
Does  he  believe  that  these  classes  would  make  the 
polls,  or  the  legislators  elected  by  their  votes,  bet- 
ter, purer,  and  more  refined  than  now  ?  Would 
they  not  very  soon  be  infinitely  worse  ?  And 
would  not  the  country,  with  this  large  addition 
to  the  corrupt  and  venal  voters,  very  soon  sink  to 
ruin  ? 

No  !  the  reformation  of  our  politics  will  not,  can 
not  come  from  that  direction.  We  must  restrict 
the  number  and  elevate  the  character  of  our  voters, 
before  we  can  hope  for  any  material  improvement. 
If  it  were  possible  to  apply  the  intellectual  test 


330    ARGUMENTS  FOR  WOMAN   SUFFRAGE. 

of  ability  to  read  and  write,  and  the  moral  test  of 
an  unblemished  character,  and  to  insist,  in  addition 
to  these,  upon  a  residence  of  not  less  than  five 
years  by  all  aliens,  after  the  declaration  of  their 
intention  to  become  citizens,  before  they  should  be 
allowed  to  vote,  we  might  hope  for  a  better  gov- 
ernment, more  honest  legislators,  and  more  refine- 
ment and  elevation  in  our  politics.  A  favorite 
mode  of  expression  with  the  advocates  of  woman- 
suffrage  in  reference  to  the  success  of  their  project, 
is  to  speak  of  it  as  "  the  emancipation  of  women ;" 
and  they  often  allude  to  "  the  coming  freedom  of 
women."  These  phrases  have  grown  out  of  the 
recent  emancipation  of  the  colored  race  here,  and 
of  the  serfs  in  Russia ;  but  there  is  a  fallacy  in 
their  application  to  women.  Emancipated  from 
what  slavery,  freed  from  what  bondage,  we  may 
ask  ?  That  very  many  women  are  the  slaves  of 
fashion,  that  they  are  in  bondage  to  their  love  of 
display,  and  ambition  to  excel  others  in  dress  and 
equipage,  is  undoubtedly  true  ;  but,  so  far  as  we  can 
understand  these  writers,  this  is  not  the  sort  of 
slavery  from  which  they  expect  emancipation. 
There  are  other  women  who  are,  in  some  sort, 
slaves  and  drudges  to  their  houses — scrubbing, 
washing,  sweeping,  dusting,  till  every  thing  around 
them  is  so  painfully  clean  that  they  are  in  distress 
lest  somebody  should  soil  it ;  but  neither  is  this 
the  bondage  from  which  freedom  is  sought.  We 
will  not  think  so  badly  of  these  women  as  to  sup- 


ARGUMENTS   FOR   WOMAN    SUFFRAGE.    33^ 

pose  that  it  is  the  matrimonial  bond  from  which 
they  desire  all  women  to  be  set  free,  though  there 
are  undoubtedly  some  cases  of  oppression  and 
cruelty  in  married  life ;  and  there  are,  very 
probably,  more  bad  and  tyrannical  husbands  than 
depraved  and  shrewish  wives.  Yet  there  are  so 
many  happy  and  united  families,  in  which  this 
bond  of  union  is  not  in  any  respect  allied  to 
slavery,  that  we  can  not  believe  these  fair  speakers 
and  writers  have  any  design  of  establishing  a  sys- 
tem of  universal  divorce. 

What,  then,  can  be  this  slavery  from  which 
woman  is  to  be  emancipated,  and  how  is  her 
emancipation  to  be  accomplished  ?  It  must  be,  to 
many  of  the  sex,  an  unconscious  bondage,  and  to 
a  large  majority,  one  from  which  they  have  no 
desire  to  be  freed. 

Inquiry  among  the  leaders  of  the  woman-suffrage 
movement  on  the  subject,  brings  a  variety  of 
answers.  Miss  Anthony  will  tell  us,  perhaps, 
that  it  is  "  man — the  horrid  creature — from  whom 
woman  desires  to  be  set  free.  He  has  always 
been  the  tyrant  and  oppressor  of  women  in  all 
ages,  and  it  is  high  time  we  were  emancipated 
from  his  sway."  "  Not  quite  so  fast,  Miss  Susan," 
exclaim  some  of  the  other  leaders,  "you  forget 
that  we  have  husbands,  very  good  fellows,  too, 
who  suffer  us  to  do  very  much  as  we  please,  and 
some  of  whom  render  us  essential  service  by  their 
advocacy  of  our  schemes  j  and  then,  too,  there  is 


332    ARGUMENTS    FOB    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE. 

that  dear,  delightful  George  Francis  Train,  you 
would  not  desire,  surely,  to  be  rid  of  him  ?" 

Well,  then,  if  it  is  not  men,  nor  husbands,  nor 
household  drudgery,  nor  fashion,  nor  display, 
from  which  you  desire  to  be  set  free,  dear  ladies, 
what  is  it  ?  The  civil  disabilities  under  which  you 
have  labored  in  regard  to  inheritance,  conducting 
business  in  your  own  names,  the  punishment  of 
crimes  against  you,  are  fast  passing  away,  and  the 
influence  you  can  exert  upon  our  legislatures,  in 
a  quiet  way,  will  be  sufficient  to  remove  whatever 
traces  of  wrong  may  still  remain.  Evils  which 
can  be  removed  by  the  exercise  of  your  wills  and 
influence,  clearly  do  not  deserve  the  name  of 
slavery.  You  do  not  receive,  perhaps,  in  all 
employments,  the  wages  you  deserve  and  should 
have ;  but  this  is  not  slavery,  since  it  is  in  your 
own  power,  as  we  have  shown,  greatly  to  improve 
your  own  condition  in  this  respect,  without  insur- 
rection or  revolution,  simply  by  abstaining  from 
undue  competition  with  each  other,  by  association, 
and  by  co-operation. 

The  absence  of  the  privilege  of  suffrage  can  not 
be  considered  as  slavery,  for  slavery  is  something 
positive,  not  negative ;  a  direct  oppression,  not  an 
absence  of  a  privilege  which  you  have  never 
enjoyed;  and  if  you  call  yourselves  slaves  from 
the  want  of  this,  you  have  ample  company,  since 
in  no  community  of  the  United  States  do  the 
voters  much  exceed  one-fifth  of  the  entire  popu- 


ARGUMENTS    FOR    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE.     333 

lation.  We  might  urge,  also,  that  you  are  already 
represented  more  efficiently  than  you  could  be  by 
a  direct  vote ;  that  your  position  in  the  organiza- 
tion of  human  society  is  such,  that  you  do  not 
need  the  ballot,  and  that  your  admission  to  the  bal- 
lot would  only  increase  the  aggregate  vote,  with- 
out altering  its  character,  except  for  the  worse — 
the  classes  of  women  who  would  vote  under  influ- 
ence being  more  numerous,  proportionately,  than 
of  men ;  but  we  have  already  sufficiently  stated 
and  illustrated  these  positions. 

But  admitting,  for  a  moment,  that  this  were  the 
only  possible  sense  in  which  women  could  be  said 
to  be  in  bondage,  the  question  arises  whether  the 
exercise  of  suffrage  would  give  them  the  freedom 
they  crave.  Women  who  voted  might  properly 
be  divided  into  two  classes :  a  small  one,  who,  hav- 
ing made  politics  their  study,  voted  independently ; 
and  a  very  large  class,  mostly  dependent  in  one 
way  or  another,  who  voted  under  the  direction  and 
influence  of  others. 

In  regard  to  this  latter  class,  we  might  well  ask, 
which  would  be  the  greater  slave — the  woman  who 
did  not  vote,  or  the  one  who  voted  only  under  the 
direction  and  dictation  of  others  ? 

As  to  the  former,  they  would  soon  find  that  an 
active  interest  in  politics  was  the  most  engross- 
ing and  enslaving  of  all  pursuits ;  and  from 
woman's  natural  tendency  to  devote  herself  whol- 
ly to  any  subject  in  which  she  becomes  deeply 


334     TFOMAN    SUFFRAGE    IN    NEW    JERSEY. 

interested,  we  might  expect  to  find  her  devotion 
to  politics  make  her  the  most  abject  of  slaves. 

We  can  not  but  regard  this  phrase,  "  the  eman- 
cipation of  women,"  as  an  unfortunate  one.  It 
expresses  a  fallacy  and  not  a  fact.  In  no  con- 
ceivable sense  are  the  great  mass  of  women  slaves ; 
and  of  course  they  are  in  no  need  of  emancipation. 

We  are  sometimes  told  that  woman-suffrage  is 
not  so  new  a  thing  after  all ;  that  it  was  practiced 
in  New  Jersey  for  thirty-three  years.  The  state- 
ment is  true ;  and  as  those  thirty-three  years  were 
between  1776  and  1807,  a  period  when  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  might 
be  supposed  to  have  exerted  the  greatest  influence 
on  the  minds  of  the  Americans,  it  will  be  inter- 
esting to  examine  into  this  practice  of  woman- 
suffrage,  and  learn  what  were  the  circumstances 
under  which  it  was  granted  and  subsequently 
annulled.  There  have  been  so  many  erroneous 
statements  made  on  this  subject,  that  we  have 
deemed  it  advisable  to  give  in  full  the  following 
very  complete  history,  compiled  evidently  from 
the  highest  authorities,  and  originally  published 
in  the  Newark  Daily  Advertiser.  We  quote  it 
from  Mrs.  Ball's  workr  "  The  College,  the  Mar- 
ket, and  the  Court,"  and  when  we  add  that  it 
was  compiled  by  Lucy  Stone  and  Antoinette 
Blackwell,  our  readers  will  agree  with  us,  that  it 
presents  the  woman's  side  of  the  question  as  fair- 
ly as  the  facts  will  justify  : — 


WOMAN    SUFFRAGE    IN    NEW    JERSEY.     335 

"  In  1709,  a  provincial  law  confined  the  privilege 
of  voting  to  ( male  freeholders  having  one  hundred 
acres  of  land  in  their  own  right,  or  fifty  pounds 
current  money  of  the  province  in  real  and  per- 
sonal estate ;'  and  during  the  whole  of  the 
colonial  period  these  qualifications  continued 
unchanged. 

"  But  on  the  2d  of  July,  1776  (two  days  before 
the  Declaration  of  Independence),  the  Provincial 
Congress  of  New  Jersey,  at  Burlington;  adopted 
a  Constitution,  which  remained  in  force  until 
1844,  of  which  section  4  is  as  follows  : — 

"  '  Qualifications  of  Electors  for  Members  of 
Legislatures.  All  inhabitants  of  this  colony,  of  full 
age,  who  are  worth  fifty  pounds  proclamation- 
money,  clear  estate  in  the  same,  and  have  resided 
within  the  county  in  which  they  claim  a  vote,  for 
twelve  months  immediately  preceding  the  elec- 
tion, shall  be  entitled  to  vote  for  representatives 
in  Council  and  Assembly,  and  also  for  all  other 
public  offices,  that  shall  be  elected  by  the  people 
of  the  county  at  large.' 

"Section  7  provides  that  the  Council  and  Assem- 
bly, jointly,  shall  elect  some  Jit  person  within  the 
colony  to  be  governor.  This  Constitution  remained 
in  force  until  1844. 

"  Thus,  by  a  deliberate  change  of  the  terms, 
( male  freeholder,'  to  i  all  inhabitants,'  suffrage 
and  ability  to  hold  the  highest  office  in  the  State 
were  conferred  both  upon  women  and  negroes. 

13* 


336     WOMAN    SUFFRAGE    IN    NEW    JERSEY. 

"  In  1790,  a  committee  of  the  legislature 
reported  a  bill  regulating  elections,  in  which  the 
words  '  he  or  she,'  are  applied  to  voters  ;  thus 
giving  legislative  indorsement  to  the  alleged 
meaning  of  the  Constitution. 

"  In  1797,  the  Legislature  passed  an  act  to 
regulate  elections,  containing  the  following  pro- 
visions : — 

"  '  Sec.  9.  Every  voter  shall  openly,  and  in  full 
view,  deliver  his  or  her  ballot,  which  shall  be  a 
single  written  ticket,  containing  the  names  of  the 
person  or  persons  for  whom  he  or  she  votes,  &c. 

"  *  Sec.  11.  All  free  inhabitants  of  full  age,  who 
are  worth  fifty  pounds  proclamation-money,  and 
have  resided  within  the  county  in  which  they 
claim  a  vote,  for  twelve  months  immediately  pre- 
ceding the  election,  shall  be  entitled  to  vote  for 
all  public  officers  which  shall  be  elected  by  virtue 
of  this  act ;  and  no  person  shall  be  entitled  to  vote 
in  any  other  township  or  precinct  than  that  in 
which  he  or  she  doth  actually  reside  at  the  time 
of  the  election.' 

"  Mr.  William  A.  Whitehead,  of  Newark,  in  a 
paper  upon  this  subject,  read  by  him  in  1858, 
before  the  New  Jersey  Historical  Society,  states 
that,  in  this  same  year  (1797),  women  voted  at 
an  election  in  Elizabethtown  for  members  of  the 
Legislature.  '  The  candidates  between  whom  the 
greatest  rivalry  existed,  were  John  Condit  and 
Wm.  Crane,  the  heads  of  what  were  known,  a  year 


WOMAN    SUFFRAGE    IN    NEW    JERSEY.     337 

or  two  later,  as  the  "  Federal  Republican,"  and 
"  Federal  Aristocratic  "  parties — the  former  the 
candidate  of  Newark  and  the  northern  portions  of 
the  county ;  the  latter,  that  of  Elizabethtown  and 
the  adjoining  country,  for  Council.  Under  the 
impression  that  the  candidates  would  poll  nearly 
the  same  number  of  votes,  the  Elizabethtown 
leaders  thought  that,  by  a  bold  coup  d'etat,  they 
might  secure  the  success  of  Mr.  Crane.  At  a  late 
hour  of  the  day,  and,  as  I  have  been  informed, 
just  before  the  close  of  the  poll,  a  number  of 
females  were  brought  up,  and,  under  the  provi- 
sions of  the  existing  laws,  allowed  to  vote.  But 
the  maneuver  was  unsuccessful ;  the  majority  for 
Mr.  Condit  in  the  county  being  ninety-three,  not- 
withstanding.' 

"  The  Newark  Sentinel,  about  the  same  time, 
states  that '  no  less  than  seventy-five  women  voted 
at  the  late  election  in  a  neighboring  borough.' 
In  the  Presidential  election  of  1800,  between 
Adams  and  Jefferson,  (  females  voted  very 
generally  throughout  the  State ;  and  such  con- 
tinued to  be  the  case  until  the  passage  of  the  act 
(1807)  excluding  them  from  the  polls.  At  first 
the  law  had  been  so  construed  as  to  admit  single 
women  only ;  but,  as  the  practice  extended,  the  con- 
struction of  the  privilege  became  broader,  and  was 
made  to  include  females  eighteen  years  old,  married 
or  single,  and  even  women  of  color;  at  a  contested 
election  in  Hunterdon  County  in  1802,  the  votes 


338    "WOMAN    SUFFRAGE    IN    NEW    JERSEY. 

of  two  or  three  such  actually  electing  a  member 
of  the  Legislature.' 

"  That  women  voted  at  a  very  early  period,  we 
are  informed  by  the  venerable  Mr.  Cyrus  Jones, 
of  East  Orange,  who  was  born  in  1770,  and  is  now 
ninety-seven  years  old.  He  says  that  '  old  maids, 
widows,  and  unmarried  women  very  frequently 
voted,  but  married  women  very  seldom;'  that  'the 
right  was  recognized,  and  very  little  said  or 
thought  about  it  in  any  way.' 

"  In  the  spring  of  1807,  a  special  election  was 
held  in  Essex  County,  to  decide  upon  the  location 
of  a  court-house  and  jail ;  Newark  and  its  vicinity 
struggling  to  retain  the  county  buildings,  Elizabeth- 
town  and  its  neighborhood  striving  to  remove  them 
to  Day's  Hill. 

"  The  question  excited  intense  interest,  as  the 
value  of  every  man's  property  was  thought  to  be 
involved.  Not  only  was  every  legal  voter,  man 
or  woman,  white  or  black,  brought  out,  but,  on 
both  sides,  gross  frauds  were  practiced.* 

*Mrs.  Ball  had  the  opportunity,  in  1867,  of  conversing  with  Mr. 
Parker,  a  venerable  member  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  who  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  New  Jersey  Legislature  of  1807,  and,  we  believe,  one  of  the 
committee  who  reported  the  bill  repealing  this  provision  of  the  Consti- 
tution. Mr.  Parker  told  her  "  that  the  women  were  not  at  that  time 
anxious  to  retain  the  privilege  (of  voting) ;  but  that  if  they  had  been, 
the  Legislature  was  so  irate  that  the  change  would  have  taken  place. 
Lads,  both  white  and  colored,  and  under  age,  had  dressed  in  women's 
cloches,  to  swell  the  ballot,  which  was  more  than  double  what  it  should 
have  been ;  the  irritating  question  being  the  possible  removal  of  the 
county  buildings. 

Mr.  Wliitehead  states,  in  a  communication  to  the  Rev.  George  B. 


WOMAN    SUFFRAGE    IN    NEW    JERSEY.      339 

"  The  property  qualification  was  generally  disre- 
garded ;  aliens,  and  boys  and  girls  not  of  full  age, 
participated,  and  many  of  both  sexes  'voted  early, 
and  voted  often.'  In  Acquackanonk  township, 
thought  to  contain  about  three  hundred  legal 
voters,  over  eighteen  hundred  votes  were  polled, 
all  but  seven  in  the  interest  of  Newark. 

"  It  does  not  appear  that  either  women  or  negroes 
were  more  especially  implicated  in  these  frauds 
than  the  white  men.  But  the  affair  caused  great 
scandal,  and  they  seem  to  have  been  made  the 
scape-goats. 

"  When  the  Legislature  assembled  they  set 
aside  the  election  as  fraudulent ;  yet  Newark  re- 
tained the  buildings.  Then  they  passed  an  act 
(Nov.  15,  1807)  restricting  the  suffrage  to  white 
male  adult  citizens  twenty-one  years  of  age,  resi- 
dents in  the  county  for  the  twelve  months  preced- 
ing, and  worth  fifty  pounds  proclamation-money. 
But  they  went  on,  and  provided  that  all  such 
whose  names  appeared  on  the  last  duplicate  of 
State  or  county  taxes  should  be  considered  worth 
fifty  pounds ;  thus  virtually  abolishing  the  property 
qualification. 

"  In  1820,  the  same  provisions  were  repeated, 
and  maintained  until  1844,  when  the  present  State 
Constitution  was  substituted. 

Bacon  of  Orange,  N.  J.,  quoted  in  Rev.  Dr.  Bushnell's  "Women's 
Suffrage — The  Reform  against  Nature."  page  111,  that  "the  women 
voted,  not  only  once,  but  as  often  as  by  the  change  of  dress,  or  com- 
plicity of  the  inspectors,  they  might  be  able  to  repeat  the  process." 


340       WOMAN    SUFFRAGE    IN    NEW   JERSEY. 

"  Thus  it  appears,  that  from  1776  to  1807— a 
period  of  thirty-one  years — the  right  of  women  and 
negroes  to  vote  was  admitted  and  exercised ;  then 
from  1807  to  1844 — by  an  arbitrary  act  of  the 
Legislature,  which  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
ever  contested — the  constitutional  right  was  sus- 
pended, and  both  women  and  negroes  excluded 
from  the  polls  for  thirty-seven  years  more.  The 
extension  of  suffrage,  in  the  State  Constitution  of 
1776,  to  ;  all  inhabitants'  possessing  the  prescribed 
qualifications,  was  doubtless  due  to  the  Quaker 
influence,  then  strong  in  West  Jersey,  and  then, 
as  now,  in  favor  of  the  equal  rights  of  women. 

"Since  1844,  under  the  present  Constitution, 
suffrage  is  conferred  upon  '  every  white  male 
citizen  of  the  United  States,  of  the  age  of  twenty- 
one  years,  who  shall  have  been  a  resident  of  this 
State  one  year,  and  the  county  in  which  he 
claims  a  vote,  five  months  next  before  the  elec- 
tion,' excepting  paupers,  idiots,  insane  persons, 
and  criminals. 

"  This  Constitution  is  subject  to  amendment  by 
a  majority  of  both  houses  of  two  successive  Legis- 
latures, when  such  amendment  is  afterward  rati- 
fied by  the  people  at  a  special  election. 

"Lucr  STONE, 
"A.  B.  BLACKWELL." 

It  is  worthy  of  notice,  that  this  voting  was 
under  a  freehold  or  property  qualification,  one 


WOMAN    SUFFRAGE    IN    NEW    JERSEY. 

which  would,  of  course,  exclude  the  dependent 
and  vicious  classes  almost  entirely  ;  yet  the  result 
was  so  deplorable  in  the  first  case  in  which  there 
was  a  warmly  contested  election,  that  the  Legis- 
lature felt  compelled  to  prohibit  further  voting  by 
women,  in  order  to  put  an  end  to  the  scandal.  If 
such  was  the  result  under  all  these  restrictions, 
what  might  be  expected  in  the  almost  unlimited 
freedom  of  universal  suffrage  ?  If  such  things 
were  done  in  the  green  tree,  what  would  be  done 
in  the  dry  ? 


CHAPTER  XX. 

AMOTTG  the  arguments  for  bestowing  suffrage 
upon  woman  to  the  same  extent  to  which  it  is 
exercised  by  man,  perhaps  the  one  most  frequently 
reiterated  by  its  advocates,  is  that  it  would  have 
such  an  elevating  effect  upon  woman,  that  it 
would  inspire  her  with  higher  hopes,  loftier  ideas? 
and  greater  energy  in  working  out  her  destiny. 

With  that  singular  incapacity  for  logical  reason- 
ing, and  that  lack  of  practicality,  which  are  such 
marked  characteristics  of  many  of  these  female  or- 
ators, some  have  insisted  that  the  ballot  would  at 
once  raise  female  wages  to  a  fair  rate,  would  in- 
crease the  social  consideration  of  women,  cause 
politicians  to  interest  themselves  in  finding  offices 
and  places  for  them,  and  would  prevent  any  of 
them  from  lacking  remunerative  employment. 

One  of  these  orators  exclaims  :  "  Shall  Sena- 
tors tell  me  in  their  places,  that  I  have  no  need  of 
the  ballot,  when  forty  thousand  women  in  the 
city  of  New  York  alone  are  earning  their  bread 
at  starving-prices  with  the  needle  !" 

We  might  reply,  very  justly,  that  there  is  no 
necessary,  hardly  any  possible,  connection  between 
the  premise  and  conclusion  of  this  plea;  that 


ARGUMENTS   FOR   WOMAN   SUFFRAGE.     343 

the  ballot  can  neither  hinder  nor  help  these  forty 
thousand  women  (the  number,  by  the  way,  is 
greatly  exaggerated)  in  regard  to  the  starving- 
prices  at  which  they  are  earning  their  bread  by 
the  needle.  All  this  we  have  shown  conclusively 
elsewhere  in  this  volume.  But  we  prefer  to  let 
one  of  their  own  sex,  a  gifted  woman,  and  a 
believer  in  the  abstract  right  of  woman-suffrage, 
answer  them  : —  * 

"  But  what  will  the  ballot  do  for  those  forty 
thousand  women  when  they  get  it  ?  It  will  not 
give  them  husbands,  nor  make  their  thriftless 
husbands  provident,  nor  their  invalid  husbands 
healthy.  They  can  not  vote  themselves  out  of 
their  dark,  unwholesome  sewing  -  rooms,  into 
counting-rooms  and  insurance  offices,  nor  have 
they  generally  the  qualifications  which  these 
places  require.  The  ballot  will  not  enable  them 
to  do  any  thing  for  which  their  constitution  or 
their  education  has  not  fitted  them,  and  I  do  not 
know  of  any  law  now,  which  prevents  them  from 
doing  any  thing  for  which  they  are  fitted,  except 
the  holding  of  government  offices.  I  can  think  of 
no  other  occupation,  which  the  right  of  suffrage  will 
open  to  woman,  and  of  public  officers  the  number 
must  be,  in  proportion  to  the  population,  insignifi- 
cant." 

The  same  writer  meets  with  still  greater  clear- 

*  Gail  Hamilton  (Miss  A.  M.  Dodge),  in  her  "  Woman's  Wrongs :  a 
Couu  ter-Irritant.' ' 


344    ARGUMENTS    FOR    WOMAN   SUFFRAGE. 

ness  and  force,  the  other  claims  which  the  adva- 
cates  of  woman-suffrage  urge  with  such  perti- 
nacity. We  quote  her  views  the  more  readily, 
because,  though  she  holds  to  woman-suffrage,  as 
an  abstract  right  of  the  sex,  she  is  too  clear- 
sighted and  sensible  to  expect  from  it  any  of  the 
thousand  benefits  which  some  of  its  advocates 
predict : — 

"  Is  it  said  that  the  impetus  given  to  women 
by  the  social  elevation  consequent  on  the  posses- 
sion of  the  ballot  will  act  in  every  direction,  will 
quicken  all  her  energies,  will  impel  her  into  a 
thousand  paths  which  now  she  never  dreams  of 
entering,  and  will  give  her  an  importance  in  the 
eyes  of  men  which  will  effectually  secure  her 
from  their  oppression  ? 

"  But  how  is  this  work  to  be  wrought  ?  Does 
the  possession  of  the  ballot  really  mark  any  prac- 
tical social  elevation  for  women  ?  Will  they  stand, 
either  in  their  own  view,  or  in  that  of  men,  any 
higher  ?  Will  they  have  more  social  influence,  or, 
if  their  vote  be  the  duplicate  of  the  male  vote, 
will  they  have  any  separate  political  influence  ? 
The  vote  in  the  hands  of  the  freedman  marks  a 
real  change.  He  was  a  slave ;  he  is  a  man,  and 
the  ballot  is  at  once  the  sign  and  the  staff  of  his 
freedom.  But  women  are  free-born.  They  have 
an  acknowledged,  or,  at  least,  an  uncontested 
right  to  form  and  to  express  opinions  on  every 
subject,  in  every  way  that  man  has,  save  one. 


ARGUMENTS    FOR   WOMAN    SUFFRAGE.     345 

Much  real  power  of  expression,  much  actual  influ- 
ence they  possess,  which  men  do  not.  They  have 
no  consciousness  of  inferiority.  Those  women 
who  are  wise  and  thoughtful,  who  understand  pol- 
itics, political  and  historical,  and  who  comprehend 
situations,  are  too  high  to  be  degraded  by  the 
absence  of  the  ballot.  Classing  them  with  idiots 
does  not  make  them  idiots.  The  classification 
fixes  the  status  of  the  classifiers,  not.  of  the 
classified.  Their  rank  and  power  in  society,  and 
their  self-respect,  will  not  be  touched  by  suffrage. 
The  influence  of  any  woman's  vote  is  slight,  com- 
pared with  that  of  her  voice.  As  for  the  feeble 
and  frivolous  women — the  women  who  are  given 
over  to  trivialities,  who  know  and  care  nothing 
for  politics,  and  reckon  their  ignorance  an  accom- 
plishment— will  the  ballot  raise  them  up  into  dig- 
nified human  beings  ?  I  hope  so.  It  is,  indeed, 
almost  the  only  ground  of  hope ;  it  is  almost  the 
only  direction  in  which  there  seems  to  be  a  pros- 
pect of  any  definite  advantage  from  female  suffrage  ; 
but  I  fear  not.  If  women  can  live  in  the  deep, 
strong  excitement  of  the  times,  if  their  ears  can 
be  filled  with  the  discussion  of  questions  which 
affect  the  honor  and  safety  of  the  country,  and 
yet  brain  and  heart  remain  untouched,  there  is 
reason  to  fear  that  the  franchise  will  fail  to  enfran- 
chise them.  All  this  is  no  reason  for  withholding 
it.  I  only  intimate  that  such  withholding  can  not 
be  considered  the  cause  of  the  apathy  which  pre- 


346     ARGUMENTS    FOR   WOMAN    SUFFRAGE. 

vails,  and  that  the  bestowal  of  the  ballot  will  hardly 
dispel  the  apathy.  It  is  only  that  the  ballot  has 
no  power  to  elevate  those  who  are  unworthy  to 
hold  it.  The  '  mobs  and  rowdies  '  have  long  held 
the  ballot,  but  are  no  less  mobs  and  rowdies.  The 
ballot  neither  elevates  nor  depresses.  It  takes  its 
character  from  its  possessor.  .  .  .  What  incitement 
to  honor,  profit,  education,  do  women  miss  in  miss- 
ing the  ballot  ?  What  barrier  will  it  remove ;  what 
stimulus  present  ?  The  brilliant  prizes  of  life  are 
already  open  to  female  competition.  There  are 
still  unequal  laws,  but  not  so  many,  or  so  severe, 
as  to  prevent  any  woman's  becoming  whatever  she 
has  power  to  become,  in  any  walk  of  life  except 
the  political.  Within  her  grasp  lies  all  the  free- 
dom which  she  has  the  nerve  to  secure.  Preju- 
dice itself  has  softened  down  into  an  insipidity 
which  is  no  obstacle  to  a  really  robust  soul.  There 
may  be  petty  jealousies  to  impede  and  annoy,  but 
these  the  ballot  will  not  remove ;  and  these,  excel- 
lence, without  the  ballot,  will  remove.  Art,  lit- 
erature, science,  theology,  medicine, — all  lie  in 
her  manor,  but  how  largely  are  they  left  unculti- 
vated !  Miss  Dickinson  has  had  a  career  more 
brilliant  than  that  of  most  men,  but  she  stands 
almost  alone  upon  the  platform.  Miss  Hosmer's 
position  is  honorable  and  secure ;  but  her  follow- 
ers are  few.  Mrs.  Stowe  has  left  all  men  far  behind 
her ;  but  the  female  story- writers  are  no  better 
than  they  were  before  Uncle  Tom  came,  and 


WHAT   WOMAN   SUFFRAGE    CANNOT   DO.    347 

spoke,  and  conquered.  What  has  the  ballot  to  do 
with  such  women  ?  It  can  give  them  no  more 
money,  for  they  already  command  the  highest 
market  price.  It  can  give  them  no  social  standing, 
for  they  rank  first  now.  Does  the  want  of  it  keep 
any  one  from  adopting  their  career  ?  I  venture 
to  say  that  there  is  not  at  this  moment  in  the 
whole  country  a  woman  who  is  held  back  from 
public  speaking,  or  from  any  of  the  finer  or  higher 
arts,  for  lack  of  voting.  If  women  held,  to-mor- 
row, the  right  of  suffrage,  there  would  not  be  any 
more  female  lawyers,  preachers,  artists,  doctors, 
than  there  are  to-day.  There  is  nothing  now  to 
hinder  a  woman  from  taking  charge  of  a  church, 
if  she  and  the  church  wish  it.  Indeed,  women, 
to-day,  hold  pastorates,  and  no  one  molests  them. 
Probably  there  is  not  a  village  or  a  city  in  New 
England,  where  a  woman  would  not  be  listened  to 
respectfully,  and  given  full  credit  for  all  her  wit 
and  wisdom.  Let  any  woman  who  is  moved  to 
address  a  public  assembly,  announce  such  an  in- 
tention, and  she  will  have  a  larger  audience  than 
a  man  of  similar  ability,  and  she  will  have  at  least 
an  equally  appreciative  hearing.  If  she  can  sus- 
tain herself,  she  will  be  sustained  by  the  public. 
Still  we  have  not  reached  the  masses — the 
women  who  have  no  inward,  irresistible  bent  to 
any  thing,  who  have  no  ambition  for  a  career,  but 
who  must  earn  their  own  living — who,  while  the 
leaders  are  conquering  all  opposition,  all  circum- 


348     WHAT    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE    CANNOT    DO. 

stances,  still  remain,  thirty-nine  thousand  and 
five  hundred  out  of  forty  thousand,  for  whose 
sake  the  ballot  is  demanded,  and  whose  fortunes 
the  ballot  is  expected  to  create.  We  have,  as 
yet,  found  no  answer  to  the  question,  What  will 
the  ballot  do  for  them  ?  (  A  thousand  employ- 
ments it  will  give  them,'  say  its  advocates,  but 
they  do  not  specify  ten ;  indeed,  I  can  not  find 
one. 

"  Is  it,  in.  fact,  the  want  of  the  ballot  that  keeps 
them  at  starving  prices,  any  more  than  it  is  the 
want  of  the  ballot  that  keeps  them  back  from  art 
and  science  ?  I  think  not.  All  suffering  is 
pitiable ;  but  I  can  not  spend  all  my  pity  upon 
these  forty  thousand.  I  pity  myself.  I  pity  the 
twice  forty  thousand  women  in  New  York  who  are 
annoyed,  hindered,  and  injured  by  the  incapacity 
of  foreign  servants,  that  do  not  know  the  difference 
between  a  castor  and  a  tureen,  or  between  truth 
and  falsehood ;  but  whose  lives  might  grow 
smooth  and  peaceful,  through  the  advent  of  forty 
thousand  intelligent  American  servants.  These 
forty  thousand  women  are  starving  over  their 
needles,  but  if  a  busy  house-mother  wants  a  plain 
dress  made,  she  must  pay  ten  dollars  for  the  work, 
bespeak  it  a  month  beforehand  at  that,  and  submit 
to  whatever  abstraction  of  pieces  the  dressmaker 
or  her  apprentices  choose  to  make.  Not  to  speak 
of  dressmaking,  it  is  no  easy  matter  to  secure 
really  good  plain  sewing ;  and  really  good  plain 


WHAT    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE    CANNOT    DO.      349 

sewing,  so  far  as  I  know,  always  commands  good 
pay.  Why,  then,  do  not  these  women  who  are 
starving  over  the  needle,  make  fine  dresses  for 
twenty  dollars,  instead  of  coarse  trousers  for 
twenty  cents  ?  Why  do  they  not  become  milli- 
ners and  mantua-makers,  and  earn  a  fortune,  and 
an  independent  position,  instead  of  remaining  slop- 
makers,  earning  barely  a  living,  and  never  rising 
above  a  servile  and  cringing  dependence  ?  It  is 
because  they  have  not  the  requisite  skill  or 
money ;  but  of  these  they  can  not  vote  themselves 
a  supply.  Here  is  a  girl  who  wants  some  other 
work  than  sewing.  She  goes  to  a  counting-room, 
and  is  offered,  by  way  of  trial,  a  package  of  let- 
ters to  copy.  The  work  is  expected  to  occupy 
about  a  week,  and  she  is  to  be  paid  twenty-five 
dollars.  She  brings  back  the  letters,  copied  in  a 
clear,  round  hand,  but  so  carelessly  and  inaccu- 
rately, that  her  work  is  worthless.  Here  is  a 
pretty,  bright  young  woman,  engaged  with  a 
room  full  of  companions  in  a  similar  work,  and 
actually  boasting  that  her  employers  '  can  not  do 
any  thing  with  us.  They  make  rules  that  we 
are  to  be  here  at  such  times,  and  to  leave  the  room 
only  at  such  times,  and  do  only  such  and  such 
things  ;  but  we  will  do  just  as  we  like  ; '  and  I  am 
not  surprised  by  and  by  to  hear  that  there  is 
trouble  brewing,  nor  do  I  see  how  the  right  of 
suffrage  is  to  remove  the  trouble.  There  are  so 
many  things  to  be  taken  into  the  account,  that  one 


350    WHAT    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE    CANNOT    DO. 

has  need  of  great  caution  in  forming  opinions ;  but 
it  seems  to  me  that  the  great  and  simple  cause  of 
the  low  wages  paid  to  women  is  the  low  work  they 
produce.  They  are  equal  only  to  the  coarse, 
common  labor;  they  get  only  the  coarse,  com- 
mon pay ;  and  there  are  such  multitudes  of 
them  that  their  employer  has  every  thing  his  own 
way.  The  moment  they  rise  to  a  higher  grade  of 
work,  the  crowd  thins,  and  they  become  masters 
of  the  situation.  It  may  not  be  their  fault  that 
they  are  not  skilled  artisans,  but  I  suppose  trade 
takes  into  account  only  facts,  not  causes.  The 
laws  of  supply  and  demand  are  just  as  rigorous  as  if 
the  brutal  and  profane  head-shopman  were  a  wood- 
en automaton.  There  are  a  few  employers  who 
modify  them  by  moral  laws  ;  but  to  the  great  mass 
work  is  worth  just  what  it  can  be  got  for,  and  so 
long  as  work  can  be  got  at  starving  prices,  living 
prices  will  not  be  paid.  What  can  the  ballot  do 
here  ?  Nothing  but  mischief.  The  relations  be- 
tween employer  and  employed  the  law  seldom 
touches  but  to  disturb.  l  Hands  off '  is  all  we 
want  of  government — its  own  hands,  and  all 
others.  Freedom,  not  fostering,  is  its  aim,  or 
fostering  only  through  freedom.  Only  so  far  as 
government  continually  tends  to  non-government, 
continually  tends  to  relegate  its  power  to  the  in- 
dividual, to  decrease  itself  and  to  increase  the 
citizen,  is  it  performing  the  true  function  of  gov- 
ernment. But  if  women  are  prevented  from 


WHAT  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  CANNOT  DO. 

establishing  themselves  in  business,  through  want 
of  means,  they  need  not  on  that  account  work  at 
starving  prices.  I  suspect  that  every  one  of  those 
forty  thousand  women  could  find  a  comfortable 
home  in  New  York — a  home  in  which  she  would 
have  plenty  of  wholesome  food  and  sufficient 
shelter,  and  in  which  she  could  earn,  besides,  two 
or  three  dollars  a  week,  if  she  would  accept  the 
home.  The  work  would  be  more  healthful  and 
far  less  exhaustive  than  the  starvation  sewing. 
Household  service  is  always  in  demand. 

"  A  woman  needs  no  capital  to  enter  upon  it. 
Even  skill  is  not  indispensable.  There  are  thou- 
sands of  families  to  which,  if  an  intelligent,  virtu- 
ous, and  ordinarily  healthful  woman  should  go  and 
say,  '  I  have  been  starving  with  my  needle,  and 
I  desire  now  to  try  housework.  I  know  very  lit- 
tle about  it,  but  I  have  determined  to  devote 
myself  to  it,  and  am  resolved  to  become  mistress 
of  it,'  she  would  be  welcomed.  Here,  by  exer- 
cising those  virtues  and  graces  which  every  human 
being  ought  to  exercise — by  being  faithful,  good- 
humored,  and  efficient,  she  could  speedily  be- 
come an  honored  and  valued  member  of  the  fam- 
ily, and  secure  herself  a  home  that  would  last 
as  long  as  the  family  held  together.  She  could 
make  herself  as  useful  to  the  family,  as  the  family 
is  to  her.  Where  is  the  sense  in  a  woman's  starv- 
ing because  she  has  no  food  in  her  hands,  when 
a  woman  is  starving  by  her  side  because  she  has 

14 


352    WHAT    WOMAN   SUFFRAGE    CANNOT    DO. 

no  hands  for  her  food  ?  I  feel  indignant  when  I 
hear  these  multiplied  stories  of  wholesale  desti- 
tution. I  am  disposed  to  say  to  these  women  : 
If  you  choose  to  stay  at  home  and  perish,  rather 
than  go  into  your  neighbor's  kitchen  and  supply 
your  wants,  do  so;  but  do  not  appeal  to  those  for 
pity  from  whom  you  refuse  employment.  I  know 
there  are  many  who  are  tied  to  their  own  wretch- 
ed homes  ;  but  if  those  who  are  unencumbered 
would  resort  to  the  kitchens  of  the  rich,  it  would 
relieve  the  stress  of  competition ;  those  who  re. 
main  would  command  a  better  price  for  their  labor, 
and  starvation  would  be  permanently  stopped. 

"  I  do  not  say  this  because  housework  is  woman's 
sphere,  but  because  it  is  honest  work  that  calls 
her,  and  any  honest  work  in  her  power  is  better 
than  starvation,  and  more  dignified  than  complamt 
and  outcry.  If  it  were  picking  apples  or  gather- 
ing huckleberries,  instead  of  housework,  I  should 
recommend  that,  just  the  same.  The  case  of  the 
woman  is  precisely  the  case  of  the  man.  If  a  man 
had  palpable,  artistic  genius,  we  should  constantly 
desire  for  him  artistic  employment ;  but  if  he 
could  by  no  means  succeed  in  securing  it,  we 
should  certainly  advise  him  to  chop  wood,  how- 
ever disagreeable  wood-chopping  be  to  him,  rather 
than  die ;  and  if  he  choose  to  shiver  and  starve  at 
his  home,  rather  than  come  and  cut  my  woor*,  for 
want  of  which  I  stand  shivering,  I  should  take 
his  starvation  with  great  equanimity.  So  with 


THE    PRESENT    SUFFRAGE    EXCITEMENT.  353 

women.  No  one  has  a  right  to  tell  women  what 
they  ought  to  do,  to  dictate  to  them  their  sphere. 
But  when  women  cry  out  that  they  are  dying  for 
the  want  of  the  ballot,  we  have  a  right  to  say  : 
'Not  so.  Unquestionably  you  are  dying,  and 
unquestionably  you  have  not  the  ballot;  but 
the  two  do  not  stand  in  the  relation  of  effect  and 
cause.' " 

We  can  very  readily  understand  how  it  should 
come  to  pass  that  there  should  be  at  this  time 
so  much  excitement  on  the  question  of  woman- 
suffrage.  The  late  war  called  into  sudden  and 
beneficent  activity  thousands  of  heroic,  brave  wo- 
men ;  tested  by  its  great  emergencies,  lifted  above 
themselves  by  its  grand  excitements,  they  found 
themselves  capable,  while  the  stress  lasted,  of  won- 
derful deeds,  as  surprising  to  themselves  as  to  any 
one  else.  Well-educated  women,  hitherto  distrust- 
ful of  their  own  powers,  undertook,  and  with  success, 
the  management  of  great  enterprises  of  mingled 
philanthropy  and  business;  they  kept,  with  perfect 
accuracy,  complicated  and  difficult  sets  of  books 
of  account,  packed  and  shipped  goods,  sometimes 
to  the  amount  of  millions  of  dollars,  superintended 
hospitals,  arranging  all  the  details  with  the  most 
perfect  system  and  order,  improvised  hospital 
comforts  and  luxuries  from  the  most  unpromising 
materials, visited  camps  and  battle-fields,  remaining 
sometimes  under  fire  when  the  most  stout-hearted 
men  retreated.  They  roused  the  occasionally 


354    THE    PRESENT    SUFFRAGE    EXCITEMENT. 

flagging  contributions  of  the  country,  by  eloquent 
appeals,  and  sometimes  by  oral  addresses  of  such 
deep  pathos,  that  large  audiences  would  be  affect- 
ed to  tears,  and  what  was  more  to  the  purpose,  to 
the  most  bounteous  giving ;  and  in  all  ways  devel- 
oped powers  of  the  possession  of  which  they  had 
previously  no  consciousness.  It  is  greatly  to  the 
honor  of  these  noble  women,  that  at  the  close  of 
the  war,  after  three  or  four  years  of  the  most 
intense  and  wearing  excitement  which  human 
nature  was  capable  of  enduring,  they  should  have 
gone  back  to  their  homes,  as  quietly  and  with  as 
little  seeming  consciousness  of  the  great  work 
they  had  accomplished,  as  if  their  years  of  toil 
had  been  but  a  pleasant  pastime.  And  yet  they 
were  greatly  changed.  The  pale  face,  the  occa- 
sional expression  of  intense  weariness,  a  weari- 
ness which  the  grave  alone  could  hide,  the  abstract- 
ed gaze,  as  if  the  soul  was  looking  back  on  all  it 
had  seen  and  suffered,  these  alone  would  have  suf- 
ficed to  show  that  there  was  a  change  from  their 
girlish  gayety,  or  their  womanly  self-possession. 

But  the  change  was  far  deeper  than  this.  The 
development  of  higher  gifts,  and  a  more  profound 
and  thoughtful  nature  than  they  had  previously 
been  conscious  of,  made  the  frivolities  and  super- 
ficiality of  their  old  life  intolerable.  Hencefor- 
ward, except  where  the  vital  powers  had  been 
so  much  overtasked  that  they  could  not  rally, 
their  lives  must  be  passed  in  unresting  activ- 


THE    PRESENT    SUFFRAGE    EXCITEMENT.  355 

ity.     To  them  the  poet's  words  were  deeply  sig- 
nificant— 

Life  is  real,  life  is  earnest, 

And  the  grave  is  not  its  goal ; 
Dust  thou  art,  to  dust  returnest, 

Was  not  spoken  of  the  soul. 

To  some  these  opportunities  for  activity  came 
in  the  shape  of  philanthropic  enterprises :  the  care 
of  hospitals,  the  ministering  to  the  sick  and  sor- 
rowing, the  instruction  and  elevation  of  the  igno- 
rant and  degraded,  the  rescue  of  the  imperiled 
or  fallen,  or  the  care  of  the  orphaned,  the  home- 
less, or  the  tempted.  Into  all  these  institutions 
they  infused  a  new  life  and  power,  and  showed 
that  they  were  in  their  true  vocation. 

Some  (a  comparatively  small  number)  in  whom 
the  consciousness  of  power  dominated  over  the 
claims  of  the  ordinary  philanthropies,  believed 
themselves  called  to  a  wider  sphere  of  action ;  to 
the  inauguration  of  reforms  in  society,  in  political 
life,  in  the  very  organization  of  government. 
Aware  of  what  they  had  been  able  to  accomplish 
amid  the  white-heat  of  a  great  civil  war,  and  not 
having  hitherto  reached  the  limit  of  their  intellec- 
tual abilities,  they  went  forward  fearlessly,  but 
found  themselves,  presently,  hampered  by  unex- 
pected obstacles,  and  learned,  to  their  cost,  that 
there  were  bounds  which  they  could  not  pass.  It 
was  natural  that  the  efforts  of  this  class  should  be 
early  directed  to  the  acquisition  of  suffrage  for 


356  THE  PRESENT  SUFFRAGE  EXCITEMENT. 

women ;  and  that  they  should  cherish  undue  ex- 
pectations from  it.  Had  they  not  demonstrated 
that  they  possessed  equal  executive  abilities,  equal 
business  capacities  with  men?  and  looking  upon 
their  owji  grand  achievements  with  a  kind  of 
proud  humility,  they  said  :  "  What  we  have  done, 
our  sisters  could  have  accomplished  under  similar 
circumstances ;"  if,  then,  they  were  capable  of 
doing  men's  work,  even  in  its  higher,  perhaps  its 
highest,  callings,  why  should  they  not  enjoy  all 
men's  privileges?  Why,  indeed? 

But  they  have  yet  to  learn,  and  some  of  them 
are  slower  in  acquiring  this  lesson  than  any  other, 
that  there  is  a  higher  sphere  of  action  for 
woman  than  the  enjoyment  of  man's  prerogatives 
or  the  usurpation  of  his  duties  and  labors.  He 
who,  in  his  blessed  word,  has  taught  us  the  true 
relations  of  the  sexes,  and  has  made  us  to  under- 
stand that  woman's  nature  is  the  complement  of 
man's,  and  that  both  are  necessary  to  make  up  the 
unit  of  a  perfect  humanity,  has  also  demonstrated 
to  us  in  the  type  of  this  perfect  humanity,  the 
God-man,  Christ  Jesus,  that  the  subject-condition 
in  this  life  is  the  one  of  the  highest  honor,  and 
that  in  the  future  it  will  receive  the  greatest 
glory.  "  For  even  the  Son  of  Man  came  not  to  be 
ministered  unto,  but  to  minister,  and  to  give  his 
life  a  ransom  for  many."  If,  then,  the  Divine  Re- 
deemer, the  only  perfect  representative  of  the  com- 
plete human  nature,  has  thus  glorified  the  subject- 


WORK    FOR    GIFTED    WOMEN  357 

condition  by  himself  assuming  it,  and  only  laying 
it  aside  with  his  mortal  life  (since  one  of  his  last 
acts  before  his  crucifixion  was  to  engage  in  the 
office  of  washing  his  disciples'  feet),  how  confi- 
dently may  those  who,  in  the  like  spirit,  have 
submitted  to  the  subject-condition  here,  look 
forward  to  that  glorious  future,  when  they  shall 
be  as  the  angels  which  excel  in  strength,  still,  in- 
deed, the  ministers  of  God's  will,  laut  ministers 
crowned  with  glory  and  honor.  This  subject-con- 
dition did  not,  in  the  case,  of  Jesus  Christ,  and 
does  not  in  theirs,  imply  any  thing  necessarily 
humiliating  or  degrading ;  it  is  rather  in  itself  one 
of  honor  and  responsibility. 

The  work  to  which  these  brave,  heroic  spirits 
are  called,  is  not,  indeed,  one  of  political  revolu- 
tion ;  it  is  something  higher  and  better.  The  army 
of  the  Union  to  which  they  with  others  ministered 
was  a  great  one,  and  the  care  of  its  sick  and 
wounded  tasked  their  highest  powers ;  but  they 
are  now  called,  if  they  will  but  heed  the  call,  to  a 
greater  ministry,  to  ameliorate  more  wide-spread 
suffering,  to  do  a  grander  work.  Be  it  theirs,  by 
associated  and  organized  effort,  to  promote  the 
practical  education  of  the  humbler  classes  of  their 
own  sex,  to  elevate  them  from  the  slough  of  pov- 
erty and  despondency,  in  which  so  many  of  them 
are  sunk,  not  by  the  gifts  of  an  indiscriminate 
charity,  but  by  kindly  sympathy,  encouragement, 
and  counsel ;  protecting  them  from  oppression  and 


358  WORK    FOR    GIFTED    WOMEN. 

wrong,  aiding  even  their  feeblest  efforts  to  strug- 
gle up  to  a  higher  position ;  assisting  in  the  at- 
tempts of  both  husbands  and  wives  to  escape  from 
the  bondage  of  intemperance  and  its  concomitant 
evils  ;  facilitating  the  acquisition  of  trades  and 
other  forms  of  skilled  labor  by  the  young ;  encour- 
aging and  helping  the  organization  of  associations 
to  prevent  overcrowding  and  undue  competition  in 
the  lower  grades  of  work  where  they  produce  the 
greatest  suffering;  explaining  and  enforcing  the 
benefits  of  co-operative  labor  and  supplies ;  and, 
where  it  is  necessary,  invoking  earnestly  the  legal 
protection  of  the  interests,  temporal  and  moral, 
of  women. 

Here  is  a  vast  and  most  beneficent  work — a 
work  which  will  give  ample  employment  to  the 
intellects  and  activities  of  thousands  of  our  most 
accomplished  women,  and  which  will  confer,  if  right- 
ly managed,  untold  benefits  upon  the  women  of  our 
country.  Were  the  ballot  the  agency  for  good 
which  its  most  enthusiastic  advocates  describe  it, 
one  week  of  such  work  as  we  have  here  indicated 
would  accomplish  more  for  the  advantage  of  Amer- 
ican women,  than  could  be  gained  from  the  ballot 
in  all  the  ages  of  the  future. 

It  would  be  a  ministry,  a  service,  it  is  true  ; 
and  those  who  engaged  in  it  would  be,  in  the  best 
sense,  the  servants  of  the  Most  High ;  but,  in  thus 
following  the  example  of  Him,  who  went  about 
doing  good,  they  would  find  their  work  and  ser 


WORK    FOB    GIFTED    WOMEN.  359 

vice    compatible  with   the   greatest  joy  and  the 
highest  honor.* 

*  Mr.  J.  Stuart  Mill,  in  some  of  the  most  eloquent  passages  of  the 
closing  chapter  of  his  book  on  "  The  Subjection  of  Women,"  thus  be- 
moans the  condition  of  these  women,  qualified  for  a  life  of  active  useful- 
ness, but  who  are,  as  he  thinks,  denied  any  suitable  outlets  for  their 
activity :  "  There  is  nothing,  after  disease,  indigence,  and  guilt,  so  fatal 
to  the  pleasurable  enjoyment  of  life  as  the  want  of  a  worthy  outlet  for 
the  active  faculties.  Women  who  have  the  cares  of  a  family,  have  thig 
outlet,  and  it  generally  suffices  for  them ;  but  what  of  the  greatly  in- 
creasing number  of  women,  who  have  had  no  opportunity  of  exercising 
the  avocation  which  they  are  mocked  by  telling  them  is  their  proper 
one?  What  of  the  women  whose  children  have  been  lost  to  them  by 
death  or  distance,  or  have  grown  up,  married,  and  formed  homes  of  their 
own?  There  are  abundant  examples  of  men  who,  after  a  life  engrossed 
by  business,  retire  with  a  competency  to  the  enjoyment,  as  they  hope, 
of  rest,  but  to  whom,  as  they  are  unable  to  acquire  new  interests  and 
excitements  that  can  replace  the  old,  the  change  to  a  life  of  inactivity 
brings  ennui,  melancholy,  and  premature  death.  Tet  no  one  thinks  of 
the  parallel  case  of  so  many  worthy  and  devoted  women,  who,  having 
paid  what  they  are  told  is  their  debt  to  society — having  brought  up  a 
family  blamelessly  to  manhood  and  womanhood — having  kept  a  house 
as  long  as  they  had  a  house  needing  to  be  kept — are  deserted  by  the 
sole  occupation  for  which  they  have  fitted  themselves  ;  and  remain  with 
undiminished  activity  but  with  no  employment  for  it,  unless,  perhaps, 
a  daughter  or  daughter-in-law  is  willing  to  abdicate,  in  their  favor,  the 
discharge  of  the  same  functions  in  her  younger  household.  Surely  a 
hard  lot  for  the  old  age  of  those  who  have  worthily  discharged,  as  long 
as  it  was  given  to  them  to  discharge,  what  the  world  accounts  their  only 
social  duty.  Of  such  women,  and  of  those  others  to  whom  this  duty  has 
not  been  committed  at  all — many  of  whom  pine  through  life  with  the 
consciousness  of  thwarted  vocations,  and  activities  which  are  not 
suffered  to  expand — the  only  resources,  speaking  generally,  are  religion 
and  charity.  But  their  religion,  though  it  may  be  one  of  feeling  and  of 
ceremonial  observance,  can  not  be  a  religion  of  action,  unless  in  the  form 
of  charity.  For  charity  many  of  them  are  by  nature  admirably  fitted ; 
but  to  practice  it  usefully,  or  even  without  doing  mischief,  requires  the 
education,  the  manifold  preparation,  the  knowledge,  and  the  thinking 
powers,  of  a  skillful  administrator.  There  are  few  of  the  administrative 
functions  of  government  for  which  a  person  would  not  be  fit,  who  is  fit 
14*  W 


360  WORK    FOR    GIFTED    WOMEN. 

We  honor  the  efforts  of  those  who  seek  to  res- 
cue from  the  paths  of  the  destroyer  those  who 
have  become  the  slaves  of  lust;  theirs  is  an 
arduous  but  a  blessed  work ;  yet,  how  much 
more  blessed  is  the  work  of  those  who  rescue 
from  temptation  those  who  have  not  yet  fallen ! 
She  who  has  not  sinned  has  great  advantages  over 

to  bestow  charity  usefully.  In  this,  as  in  other  cases  (pre-eminently  in 
that  of  t'  e  education  of  children),  the  duties  permitted  to  women  can  not 
be  performed  properly  without  their  being  trained  for  duties  which,  to 
the  great  loss  of  society,  are  not  permitted  to  them.  .  .  . 

"If  there  is  any  thing  vitally  important  to  the  happiness  of  human 
beings,  it  is  that  they  should  relish  their  habitual  pursuit.  This  requisite 
of  enjoyable  life  is  very  imperfectly  granted,  or  altogether  denied,  to  a 
large  part  of  mankind  ;  and  by  its  absence  many  a  life  is  a  failure,  which 
i.  provided,  in  appearance,  with  every  requisite  of  success.  But  if  circum- 
stances, which  society  is  not  yet  skillful  enough  to  overcome,  render  such 
failures  often  for  the  present  inevitable,  society  need  not  itself  inflict 
them.  The  injudiciousness  of  parents,  a  youth's  own  inexperience,  or 
the  absence  of  external  opportunities  for  the  congenial  vocation,  and  their 
presence  for  an  uncongenial,  condemn  numbers  of  men  to  pass  their 
lives  in  doi..g  one  thing  reluctantly  and  ill,  when  there  are  other  things 
which  they  could  have  done  well  and  happily.  But  on  women  this  sen- 
tence is  imposed  by  actual  law,  and  by  customs  equivalent  to  law. 
What,  in  unenlightened  societies,  color,  race,  religion,  or  in  the  case  of  a 
conquered  country,  nationality,  are  to  some  men,  s  x  is  to  all  women ; 
a  peremptory  exclusion  from  almost  all  honorable  occupations,  but  either 
such  as  can  not  be  fulfilled  by  others,  or  such  as  those  others  do  not 
think  worthy  of  their  acceptance.  Sufferings  arising  from  causes  of 
this  nature  usually  meet  with  so  little  sympathy,  that  few  persons  are 
aware  of  the  great  amount  of  unhappiness  even  now  produced  by  the 
feeling  of  a  wasted  life.  The  case  will  be  even  more  frequent,  as  in- 
creased cultivation  creates  a  greater  and  greater  disproportion  between 
the  ideas  and  faculties  of  women  and  the  scope  which  society  allows  to 
their  activity."  We  have,  we  think,  demonstrated  in  the  passage  which 
precedes  this  note,  that  for  the  classes  whose  lack  of  enjoyable  employ- 
ment Mr.  Mill  so  eloquently  deplores,  there  is  something  better  than  the 
ballot,  and  better  than  that  indiscriminate  dispensation  of  charity  which 
he  seems  to  regard  as  their  only  other  resource. 


WORK    FOR    GIFTED    WOMEN. 

her  erring,  but  repentant  sister.  How  much  of 
sin  and  bitter  repentance  may  be  prevented .  by 
such  labors  as  we  have  indicated;  how  many 
homes  now  desolated  by  vice  may  be  made  happy  ; 
and  how  many  wives  and  mothers,  in  imminent 
danger  of  falling,  may  be  held  up  and  made  to 
stand  firmly !  How  many  abodes  of  wretched- 
ness and  filth  may,  by  kindly  counsel  and  instruc- 
tion, be  made  comfortable  and  cheerful  homes  ! 
An  organization  somewhat  akin  to  this,  though 
more  distinctly  religious,  has  been  established  in 
Germany  by  the  philanthropist,  Wichern,  and  some 
associates,  male  and  female,  of  kindred  spirit,  un- 
der the  name  of  "  The  Inner  Mission,"  and  it  has 
accomplished  a  vast  amount  of  good.  Let  us  have 
our  "  Inner  Mission "  here,  and  let  those  noble 
women  who  showed  such  executive  and  adminis- 
trative ability  during  the  late  war,  be  its  founders 
and  managers. 

There  are  other  fields  of  effort  yet  open  to 
this  newly-awakened  activity  of  woman ;  fields  in 
which  she  may  exhaust  the  aspirations  of  her 
nature,  without  ever  reaching  their  bounds.  Are 
her  tastes  and  sympathies  interested  in  the  pro- 
motion of  high  art  ?  Is  "  a  thing  of  beauty  a  joy 
forever  "  to  her  ?  How  wide  is  the  scope  for  the 
exercise  of  her  powers  of  invention,  creation,  and 
combination  ?  In  painting,  in  sculpture,  in  those 
arts  of  design  which  are  of  humbler  name,  she 
may  aid  in  enlightening  and  beautifying  the  world, 


362  WORK   FOB    GIFTED    WOMEN. 

and  if  her  highly  cultivated  taste  excel  her  pow- 
ers of  execution,  how  easily  may  she,  as  the  friend 
and  patron  of  artists,  give  them  that  appreciative 
encouragement  which  is  often  more  cheering  to 
their  sensitive  natures  than  the  most  lavish  ex- 
penditure without  intelligent  interest. 

There  are  other  realms  of  art,  too,  in  which 
woman  reigns  of  right.  In  music,  she  can,  if 
endowed  with  a  fine  and  flexible  voice,  thoroughly 
trained,  move  the  heart  and  thrill  the  soul,  as  no 
man  ever  did  or  can.  And  this  is  not,  as  some 
have  supposed,  because  the  soprano  voice  is  so 
much  more  effective  than  the  tenor,  but  because 
the  woman  puts  more  soul  into  her  singing,  and 
forgetting  her  own  consciousness,  is  borne  heaven- 
ward by  the  exalted  strains,  while  the  man  almost 
inevitably  thrusts  his  own  personality  into  his 
music. 

And  what  is  true  of  music,  is  also,  in  a  less 
degree,  perhaps,  true  of  poetry.  The  elements 
of  the  true  poetic  nature  are  oftener  found  in 
woman  than  man;  and  the  sole  reason  why  wo- 
men have  not  oftener  been  successful  in  attaining 
the  loftier  heights  of  poetry,  has  been  that  they 
have  been  too  much  afraid  to  abandon  themselves 
to  its  best  inspirations  ;  they  have  mingled  too 
often  their  own  personality  with  the  great  thoughts 
which  sought  utterance.  The  genuine  poets  of 
the  future  will,  many  of  them,  be  women.  In 
still  another  department  of  art,  now  degraded  by 


WORK    FOR    GIFTED    WOMEN.  353 

the  utter  want  of  good  taste,  and  in  which  the 
worst  possible  contrivances  of  women,  alike  devoid 
of  intellectual  and  moral  capacity  for  their  work, 
have  been  eagerly  copied,  the  artistic  designing 
and  planning  of  woman's  dress,  there  is  a  wide 
scope  for  the  genius  of  highly  cultured  and  gifted 
women. 

What  an  admirable  means  of  instruction  in  the 
principles  of  beauty  in  form,  lines,  design,  and 
color,  might  dress  be  made.  How  complete  its 
adaptation  to  the  figure,  complexion,  and  bearing 
of  the  wearer.  And  how  might  economy,  both  in 
style  and  cost  of  material,  be  made  compatible 
with  elegance  and  excellence.  We  should  be 
delivered  from  those  hideous  designs,  whose  only 
object  seems  to  be  to  transform  the  most  trans- 
cendent beauty  into  a  thorough  fright ;  and  in  the 
reign  of  exquisite  taste  which  would  ensue,  the 
eye  would  no  longer  be  pained,  nor  the  heart  sick- 
ened, by  the  grotesque  deformities  Avhich  are  now 
palmed  upon  society  as  the  latest  fashions. 

There  would  be  a  positive  gain  to  our  systems 
of  education,  both  the  public  and  the  charitable, 
if  they  were  to  a  much  greater  extent  than  they 
now  are,  under  the  control  and  supervision  of 
thoroughly  trained,  sensible  women.  The  deacon- 
esses and  Protestant  sisterhoods  in  Europe,  train- 
ed to  educational  and  charitable  labors,  and  the 
Sisters  of  the  Sacred  Heart  and  of  Mercy  in  the 
Catholic  Church,  accomplish  great  good  in  their 


364  WORK    FOR    GIFTED    WOMEN. 

several  spheres,  in  bringing  the  children  of  the 
middle  and  poorer  classes  under  instruction.  Or- 
ganized and  persistent  effort  is  greatly  needed  in 
this  country,  especially  in  our  great  cities,  to 
bring  the  vast  numbers  of  vagrant  and  truant  chil- 
dren into  schools.  It  is  estimated  that,  in  New 
York  and  Brooklyn  alone,  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  children,  between  the  ages  of  five  and 
sixteen  years,  never  enter  a  school ;  and  from 
these  hordes  of  young  vagrants,  the  criminal  classes 
are  constantly  recruited.  By  systematized  and 
judicious  effort,  much  can  be  done  to  educate  and 
train  up  these  children  aright ;  and  women  must 
do  it,  if  it  is  to  be  done  successfully. 

Another  wide  field  of  activity  for  these  women 
who  desire  to  be  useful,  is  to  be  found  in  the 
management  of  charitable  and  benevolent  institu- 
tions. The  reformatories,  homes  for  the  friend- 
less, orphan  and  half-orphan  asylums,  homes  for 
the  aged  and  infirm,  schools  for  feeble-minded  and 
imbecile  children,  nurseries,  creches,  children's 
and  foundling  hospitals,  asylums  for  consumptives 
and  incurables,  industrial  schools  for  girls,  work- 
ing-women's homes,  houses  of  correction,  homes 
for  fallen  women,  and  all  the  wide  range  of  refor- 
matory, corrective,  and  charitable  institutions,  will 
generally  succeed  better  under  the  management 
of  able  and  judicious  women,  than  under  the 
charge  of  men ;  and  though  the  experiment  has 
not  yet  been  tried  on  a  large  scale,  we  incline  to 


WORK    FOR    GIFTED    WOMEN.  355 

the  belief  that  they  would  prove  skillful  in  the 
management  of  deaf-mute  and  blind  asylums. 
Every  thing  depends,  of  course,  upon  the  selection 
of  women  for  these  posts,  since  a  pragmatic, 
wrong-headed,  or  otherwise  incompetent  woman, 
could,  even  to  a  greater  extent  than  a  man  of  the 
same  character,  do  almost  irreparable  injury  to 
the  institution. 

But  for  women  possessing  the  high  abilities  and 
the  ardent  piety,  which  are  the  necessary  qualifi- 
cations for  the  work,  there  is  no  sphere  where 
there  is  so  great  an  opportunity  of  usefulness  as 
is  to  be  found  in  connection  with  the  Christian 
Church.  She  who  lays  her  intellectual  gifts,  her 
graces,  her  superior  culture,  and  her  ability,  to 
plan  and  work  for  Christ  and  his  Church,  upon 
the  altar,  brings  a  noble  sacrifice.  Foreign  mis- 
sions call  loudly  on  our  women  of  culture  and 
talent,  for  recruits  to  the  heroic  band  who  have 
been  for  years  struggling  with  the  darkness  of 
heathen  minds,  the  powerful  influence  of  caste, 
the  degrading  doctrines  of  Brahminism  and  Mo- 
hammedanism, in  relation  to  the  future  life  of 
woman,  and  the  general  condition  of  depression 
and  wretchedness  of  the  sex  on  the  Asiatic  and 
African  continents. 

Formerly,  women  who  went  out  to  the  East,  as 
the  wives  of  missionaries,  were  looked  upon  as  a 
sort  of  necessary  evil ;  little  or  nothing  was  ex- 
pected from  them  in  the  way  of  missionary  labor, 


366  WORK    FOR    GIFTED    WOMEN. 

and  some  of  the  missionary  boards  preferred  that 
the  missonary  should  be  a  celibate.  More  than 
once  was  the  question  argued  in  the  meetings  of 
these  boards,  whether  the  wives  were  not,  on  the 
whole,  a  hinderance,  rather  than  a  help,  to  the 
success  of  their  husbands. 

The  remarkable  efficiency  of  many  of  these 
women  in  a  few  years  overcame  these  prejudices, 
and  now,  not  only  is  it  considered  desirable  that 
every  male  missionary  should  have  a  wife,  who 
will  be  a  help-meet  for  him  in  his  labors,  and  who 
will  take  an  active  part  in  teaching,  and  exerting 
her  influence  for  the  elevation  of  her  sex  from  the 
ignorance  and  degradation  which  now  surround 
them,  but  very  considerable  numbers  of  single 
women  are  sent  out  as  teachers  of  the  heathen 
women,  on  a  wider  scale  than  had  previously  been 
attempted,  and  preparations  are  making  to  estab- 
lish Christian  women,  educated  as  physicians,  in 
Mohammedan,  Hindoo,  and  Chinese  countries, 
because  they  can  reach  their  own  sex  in  the  high- 
er classes  through  their  professions,  where  men 
could  obtain  no  access  to  them.  In  these  various 
classes  of  duties,  there  is  a  field  for  as  many 
women  as  will  devote  themselves  to  the  work. 

But  the  home-field  is  not  less  importunate  in  its 
demands  for  more  laborers  than  the  foreign.  On 
the  frontier,  the  wives  of  home-missionaries,  and 
female  missionary  teachers,  will  find  ample  scope 
for  work  which  will  accomplish  more  for  the  men- 


WORK    FOR    GIFTED    WOMEN.  357 

tal  and  moral  improvement  of  these  States  of  the 
future,  than  almost  any  other  agency. 

In  our  great  cities  and  towns,  and  even  to  a 
considerable  extent  in  the  more  scattered  farming 
districts,  the  necessity  for  mission  schools,  for 
friendly  Christian  visitation  from  house  to  house, 
for  Sunday-school  instruction  among  the  ignorant, 
poor,  and  vagrant  classes,  for  those  ministrations 
to  temporal  necessities  which  are  so  often  the 
means  of  calling  the  minds  of  these  poor  people  to 
the  consideration  of  religious  truth,  and  the  thou- 
sand other  methods  of  reaching  the  lower  classes 
for  their  good,  are  already  employing  the  thoughts, 
the  hearts,  and  the  hands  of  many  Christian 
women ;  but  the  number  might  and  should  be 
greatly  increased.  This  is  a  work  which  money 
alone  can  not  do  ;  money  is  needed,  undoubtedly, 
and  our  Christian,  philanthropic  men,  may  be 
relied  upon  with  considerable  certainty,  to  furnish 
that — they  have  never  yet  been  found  wanting, 
when  properly  approached  for  such  causes — but 
what  is  absolutely  indispensable  is,  that  personal 
effort  and  influence  which  women  of  tact  and 
high  religious  enthusiasm  can  best  exert. 

There  is  still  another  department  of  this  field  in 
which  educated  and  refined  Christian  women  can 
do  a  work  whose  influences  shall  be  felt  through 
all  coming  time.  There  are,  in  all  our  large  cities, 
many  thousands  of  young  men  who  have  come 
thither  to  fill  places  as  clerks,  errand  boys,  and 


368  WORK    FOR    GIFTED    WOMEN. 

apprentices  to  the  various  mechanical  and  manu- 
facturing occupations.  They  have  left  country 
homes  often  where  they  were  under  good  influ- 
ences, and  have  come  to  the  great  city,  where  they 
are  homeless  and  friendless.  The  cheerless  board- 
ing-house, with  its  hall  bedrooms  and  untidy  table, 
does  not  invite  their  stay  in  it  a  moment  longe1 
than  can  be  helped ;  and  they  go  forth  into  the 
streets  to  satisfy  their  craving  for  society  and  enter- 
tainment, two  wants  which  are  uppermost  in  their 
minds.  Satan  takes  good  care  that  neither  of  these 
shall  be  lacking  on  his  side.  The  friendless,  lonely 
young  man,  unguarded  by  any  strong  religious 
principle,  is  not  long  at  a  loss  for  either  compan- 
ionship or  pleasure  in  a  great  city.  On  every 
hand,  the  theater,  the  concert-saloon,  the  beer-gar* 
den,  the  billiard-room,  glowing  with  light  and 
beauty,  stand  conspicuously  before  him,  and 
places  of  even  baser  character  are  not  hard  te 
find.  To  keep  these  young  men  from  such  resorts 
there  must  be  other  resorts,  also  glowing  witb 
brightness  and  beauty,  where  wholesome — not  dul/ 
— entertainment  and  pleasant  society  may  attrac' 
and  keep  the  yet  unhardened  from  the  dangerous 
influences  surrounding  them. 

The  "  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations  "  are 
doing  a  good  work  in  this  direction,  but  they  neec 
help — such  help  as  Christian  employers  can  give 
by  taking  a  careful  interest  in  the  intellectual  an£ 
spiritual  welfare  of  all  those  in  their  employ, 


WORK    FOR    GIFTED    WOMEN.  359 

seeing  to  it,  personally,  that  they  have  suitable 
companionship  and  proper  sources  of  entertain- 
ment ;  and,  above  all,  they  need  help  from  noble 
Christian  women.  No  attraction  to  good  is  so  pow- 
erful to  young  men  of  this  class,  as  the  influence 
and  notice  of  pure,  gentle,  and  intelligent  women. 
Their  influence  is,  beyond  comparison,  greater 
than  that  of  all  others  with  these  youths,  who  have 
left  tender  and  pure-minded  mothers  and  sisters  in 
their  far-away  homes.*  If  attracted  away  from, 
the  haunts  of  vice,  and  strengthened  in  all  good 
purposes  and  virtuous  undertakings,  they  will 
become,  in  a  few  years,  proprietors  and  employers, 
where  they  are  now  clerks  and  apprentices.  Then, 
how  vast  will  be  the  power  which  they  will  exert 
for  good  in  the  community — a  power  due  almost 
wholly  to  the  influence  of  these  Christian  women, 
who,  at  the  cost,  doubtless,  of  a  considerable  sacri- 
fice of  their  feelings  and  natural  reserve,  have  won 
them  from  the  haunts  of  vanity  and  sin,  to  become, 
under  their  guidance,  honorable,  high-minded 
Christian  men. 

Several  of  the  Christian  churches  in  Europe, 
and  three  or  four  denominations  in  this  country, 
have  been  in  the  habit  for  some  years  of  setting 
apart,  by  some  simple  form  of  consecration, 
after  suitable  instruction  and  training,  such 

*  We  are  gratified  to  learn  that,  in  New  York  City,  a  considerable 
number  of  excellent  and  philanthropic  women  have  banded  themselves 
together  for  this  and  other  humane  purposes,  under  the  appropriate 
title  of  "Sisters  of  the  Stranger." 


370  WORK    FOR    GIFTED  WOMEN. 

women  as  felt  that  they  were  called  to  the  work, 
as  deaconesses,  or,  as  they  are  called  in  some  of 
the  churches,  "Protestant  Sisters." 

The  work  of  the  deaconesses  is,  in  general,  vis- 
iting and  nursing  the  sick,  ministering  to  the  poor, 
gathering  the  poor  and  vagrant  children  into  paro- 
chial schools,  and,  in  some  instances,  teaching 
them ;  encouraging  and  aiding  those  who  have  not 
attended  church  to  do  so,  assisting  the  clergymen 
under  whose  general  direction  they  work,  in  such 
of  his  pastoral  duties  as  may  come  within  their 
range,  and  less  frequently,  though  to  a  consider- 
able extent,  nursing  in  and  superintending  hospit- 
als and  asylums,  acting  as  matrons  and  managers 
in  Magdalen  asylums,  penitentiaries,  and  prisons 
for  women. 

The  Deaconesses'  Institute  at  Kaiserswerth,  on 
the  Rhine,  long  under  the  care  of  its  founder, 
Pastor  Fliedner,  and  now  conducted  by  his  widow 
and  daughters,  is  the  best  known  of  all  these,  in 
part  from  the  fact  that  Florence  Nightingale 
received  her  special  training  there.  It  has  sent 
out  several  hundred  deaconesses,  who  are  mostly 
at  work  in  Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  -and  America. 
They  enter  upon  their  work  for  five  years,  but 
take  no  vow,  and  are  at  liberty  to  marry  if  they 
choose.  Most  of  them  continue  in  their  work 
beyond  the  five  years,  and  if  they  remain  in  it  till 
disabled  by  illness,  infirmity,  or  old  age,  they  have 
a  home  at  Kaiserswerth  to  which  they  are  wel- 


WORK    FOB    GIFTED    WOMEN. 

corned,  and  where  they  spend  the  evening  of  their 
days.  This  institute  is  under  the  care  of  the 
Lutheran  Church.  A  somewhat  similar  institution, 
at  Strasburg,  under  the  care  of  the  Protestant 
Reformed  Church  of  France,  has  also  accomplished 
a  great  amount  of  good.  Smaller  establishments 
exist  in  the  Dordogne,  under  the  care  of  Pastor 
Bost ;  in  Paris,  also  under  the  direction  of  the 
Protestant  Reformed  Church ;  at  Basle,  in  connec- 
tion, we  believe, with  the  Basle  Missionary  Society, 
and  in  some  other  towns  of  Central  Europe.  la 
England,  the  organization  of  sisterhoods  has  been 
a  High  Church,  and  to  some  extent  a  ritualistic 
development ;  and  though  they  have  accomplished 
some  good,  it  has  caused  a  prejudice  against  them 
that  they  copied  too  closely  the  objectionable  fea. 
tures  of  the  Catholic  order  of  Sisters  of  Charity. 
That  order,  despite  its  life  vows,  its  peculiar  cos- 
tume, its  lack  of  a  broad  and  generous  culture,  its 
fanaticism,  and  its  zeal  in  propagating  under  all 
circumstances  and  at  all  times  the  Romish  faith, 
has  accomplished  a  vast  amount  of  good,  and  has 
given  Romanism  a  more  powerful  hold  on  the 
hearts  of  the  masses,  than  all  its  other  agencies. 
In  this  country,  the  Lutherans,  the  Moravians,  the 
Mennonites,  the  Tunkers,  and,  in  a  few  instances, 
the  Congregational  churches,  have  had  and  still 
have  their  deaconesses  ;  not  always  trained  like 
those  of  the  European  institutions,  but  always 
selected  from  those  who  manifested  a  vocation  for 


372  WORK    FOR    GIFTED    WOMEN. 

the  work.  Analogous  to  these,  in  some  particulars, 
are  the  women  preachers  and  elders  among  the 
Friends.  Some  churches,  and  at  least  one  diocese 
of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  have  favored 
the  establishment  of  sisterhoods,  trained  to  this 
philanthropic  and  Christian  work,  from  some  of 
which  (notably  the  Sisterhood  of  the  Holy  Com- 
munion in  New  York,  and  a  similar  organization 
in  Baltimore,  under  the  direct  patronage  of  Bishop 
Whittingham)  were  sent  some  of  the  most  accom- 
plished nurses  and  lady  superintendents  of  hospi- 
tals who  served  in  those  capacities  during  the  war. 
We  have  been  thus  particular  in  our  review  of 
the  work  which  still  demands  the  exertion  of  the 
marvelous  energies,  the  great  abilities,  and  the 
remarkable  administrative  powers  of  the  women 
who  were  the  glory  and  pride  of  our  country 
during  the  recent  war,  for  the  purpose  of  showing 
to  them  that  their  time  and  intellect  need  not  be 
frittered  away  on  such  insignificant  objects  as 
woman-suffrage,  but  that  they  can  find  "  ample 
scope  and  verge  enough"  for  the  exercise  of  all 
their  powers,  in  the  great  duties  which  we  have 
spread  before  them.  There  are  those  among 
them,  we  feel  certain,  who  will  rise, — there  are 
some,  indeed,  who  have  already  risen  "  to  the 
height  of  this  great  argument,"  and  we  can  not  but 
commend  their  example  to  those  of  their  sisters 
who  seek  but  to  know  their  duty,  and  are  willing, 
so  soon  as  it  is  known,  to  do  it  with  their  might. 


CHAPTER   XXI. 

WERE  we  to  estimate  the  importance  of  the 
movement  for  woman-suffrage,  by  the  force  of  the 
arguments  of  the  women  who  have  undertaken  its 
advocacy  in  this  country,  we  should  deem  the 
labor  we  have  bestowed  on  the  subject  as  well 
nigh  lost,  for  there  can  be  no  serious  discussion, 
when  one  of  the  parties  puts  forth  only  words 
without  argument.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that 
Mrs.  Stanton,  Miss  Anthony,  and  the  other  eight 
or  ten  ladies  who  have  made  themselves  conspicu- 
ous in  this  movement,  possess  considerable  talent ; 
they  ought  to  be  familiar  with  the  whole  subject 
of  woman-suffrage,  for  some  of  them  have  been 
declaiming  in  its  favor  for  twenty  years  and 
more  ;  if  there  are  any  strong  arguments  for  it, 
they  certainly  should  have  them  at  their  fingers' 
ends ;  but,  after  a  careful  reading  of  their  ad- 
dresses and  speeches,  and  a  frequent  perusal  of  the 
Revolution — their  organ — we  have  failed  to  find 
any  thing  which  could  be,  by  courtesy,  called  an 
argument,  in  favor  of  what  they  claim  to  be  the 
greatest  reform  of  the  century.  There  is  decla- 
mation in  plenty;  exaggerated  and  inaccurate  sta- 
tistics of  the  number  of  working-women  who  are 


374  SUFFRAGE    MOVEMENT 

starving  for  want  of  the  ballot ;  of  the  number  of 
the  impoverished  and  vicious  classes  ;  careless  mis- 
representations of  the  arguments  against  woman- 
suffrage;  the  most  laughable  non  sequiturs,  from 
assumed,  but  false  premises  ;  sharp,  and  sometimes 
witty  flings  against  opponents,  and  a  great  amount 
of  froth  and  fury,  utterly  irrelevant  to  the  subject ; 
but  of  real  argument,  not  a  word. 

Of  course  there  is  nothing  to  answer  in  such 
ebullitions ;  and,  were  it  not  that  a  few  writers 
elsewhere,  among  them  Mr.  Mill  and  Mrs.  Ball, 
have  brought  forward  all  the  arguments  which 
can  be  adduced  in  its  favor,  we  should  have 
deemed  it  the  wiser  course  to  let  the  public  judge 
of  the  cause  by  their  weak  defense  of  it,  satisfied 
that  they  could  make  no  considerable  progress  with 
thoughtful  minds. 

Many  of  Mr.  Mill's  arguments  do  not  apply  to 
the  condition  of  affairs  here,  being  written  for  the 
people  of  England,  where  the  property-qualifica- 
tion is  an  essential  feature  of  the  suffrage  ;  others 
we  have  met,  we  believe,  satisfactorily.  Mrs.  Dall 
indulges  too  much  in  mere  declamation,  but  she 
adduces  more  arguments  than  any  of  her  sisters, 
and  these  we  have  endeavored  to  answer  fully. 

The  effect  of  this  frothy  declamation,  and  asser- 
tion without  proof,  upon  the  community,  has  been 
just  what  might  have  been  expected  ;  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  sensible,  practical  women,  who,  at  a 
first  superficial  survey  of  the  subject,  thought  that 


NOT  A  SUCCESS.  375 

it  might  be  well  for  women  to  enjoy  the  abstract 
right  of  suffrage,  though  they  would  have  been 
opposed  to  any  frequent  exercise  of  it,  have  be- 
come completely  disgusted  with  the  want  of  reason 
and  argument  which  these  self-appointed  advocates 
have  manifested,  and  are  now  clear  and  decided 
opponents  of  woman-suffrage,  under  any  and  all 
circumstances.  Let  us  give  a  few  instances,  which 
will  serve  to  show  the  existing  feeling  on  the 
subject. 

About  a  year  ago,  a  working-women's  asso- 
ciation, was  organized  in  New  York  City,  Miss 
Anthony  being  active  in  it  from  the  first.  Its  main 
object  was,  such  systemization  of  woman's  work, 
as  should  lead  to  their  receiving  better  wages,  and 
should  prevent  undue  and  unfair  competition.  Miss 
Anthony  insisted  that  these  objects  could  be  at- 
tained only  by  the  acquisition  of  the  suffrage.  The 
working-women,  who  had  come  into  the  organiza- 
tion in  considerable  numbers,  listened  at  first  with 
respectful  silence,  and  some  hope,  but  soon  per- 
ceiving that  there  was  nothing  but  declamation  and 
froth  in  these  harangues,  and  finding  that  the  only 
measures  which  were  practical  and  feasible,  were 
steadily  ignored  by  Miss  Anthony,  and  that  there 
was  no  way  of  shaking  off  this  "  Old  Man  of  the 
Sea,"  they  began  to  drop  off  by  ten  or  a  dozen  at  a 
time,  till  finally  Miss  Anthony  was  left  with  but  two 
or  three  adherents.  The  working-women,  meantime, 
organized  anew,  and  made  it  one  of  their  organic 

15  X 


376  SUFFRAGE    MOVEMENT 

conditions  that  neither  woman-suffrage  nor  its  ad- 
vocates should  have  any  place  henceforth  in  their 
association. 

There  were  at  first  a  considerable  number  of 
sincere  friends  of  the  movement  for  the  elevation 
of  woman,  and  her  more  thorough  culture — persons 
of  both  sexes,  who  honestly  thought  that  some 
benefit  might  inure  to  woman  from  the  possession 
of  suffrage.  They  had  no  political  ends  to  serve, 
and  no  personal  ambitions  to  gratify.  A  year  or 
two  of  declamation  from  the  leaders  has  satisfied 
most  of  these,  either  that  the  ballot  would  be  pro- 
ductive of  more  evil  than  good  to  woman,  or,  that 
of  all  the  agencies  for  her  advancement,  it  was  the 
least  significant  and  the  least  important.  Among 
these  we  may  name  Mr.  Greeley,  Geo.  W.  Curtis, 
Miss  A.  Dodge  (Gail  Hamilton),  Miss  C.  E. 
Beecher,  and  one,  at  least,  if  not  more,  of  her 
sisters,  and,  we  believe,  also,  Mr.  W.  L.  Garrison. 

Chicago,  as  in  duty  bound,  was  early,  forward  in 
this  movement,  a  Sorosis  being  formed,  in  which 
this  was  the  prominent  idea,  and  a  newspaper  in 
defense  of  woman-suffrage  in  particular,  and 
woman's  rights  in  general,  started,  under  the  edi- 
torial charge  of  one  of  the  most  gifted,  brilliant, 
and  eloquent  women  of  the  city — one  who  had 
already  achieved  a  high  reputation  by  her  labors 
in  behalf  of  the  soldiers  during  the  war. 

Chicago  is  a  fast  city,  and  these  enterprises 
presently  attained  maturity — and  decay.  The 


NOT  A  SUCCESS.  377 

Sorosis  failed  first,  and  singularly  enough,  .on  a 
question  of  the  individual  rights  of  one  of  its  mem- 
bers. The  interest  in  the  paper  speedily  began  to 
wane,  and  not  all  the  ability  of  its  editor  could 
increase  or  even  maintain  its  circulation.  We  are 
not  informed  whether  it  still  exists,  but  at  the 
latest  advices,  it  was  evidently  destined  to  speedy 
dissolution.  Meantime,  the  true  friends  of  woman 
have  been  gradually  arriving  at  the  conclusion 
that  her  highest  interests  and  her  best  oppor. 
tunity  for  improving  her  condition  lie  in  quite 
another  direction,  and  that  her  advancement  can 
be  best  promoted  by  a  more  thorough  and  more 
practical  education,  especially  in  artistic,  horticul- 
tural, and  other  industrial  pursuits,  by  trades- 
unions,  co-operative  societies,  and  association. 
Miss  Beecher  has  led  the  way  among  her  own  sex 
in  the  systematic  development  of  plans  for  this 
purpose,  and  "  Gail  Hamilton  "  has  demonstrated, 
with  more  than  her  accustomed  force,  that  the 
evils  under  which  women  suffer  are  very  largely 
due  to  their  own  ignorance,  indifference,  or  reck- 
lessness. 

So  rapidly  is  this  sound  and  healthy  reaction 
affecting  the  masses  of  intelligent  women,  that 
were  the  vote  to  be  taken  among  them  solely  to- 
day, the  preponderance  against  woman-suffrage 
would  be,  at  least,  ten  to  one. 

"  But,"  say  some  of  the  advocates  of  woman- 
suffrage,  "  if  there  are  any  women  who  want  to 


378      SUFFRAGE    MOVEMENT    NO    SUCCESS. 

vote,  the  door  ought  to  be  opened  so  that  all  can 
who  choose." 

Why,  0  sapient  orator !  should  they  be  ?  Let 
us  put  the  proposition  in  another  shape.  If  there 
are  any  minors  (no  matter  of  what  age)  who 
want  to  vote,  the  doors  ought  to  be  opened,  so 
that  all  can  who  choose.  Does  that  proposition 
seem  absurd  ?  It  is  not  more  so  than  the  other. 
Still  another  form  might  be  given  to  it  with  equal 
justice.  If  a  woman  wants  any  thing  (no  matter 
whether  it  is  reasonable  or  unreasonable),  she 
ought  to  have  it.  We  are  hardly  prepared  to  ac- 
cept either  proposition  as  our  rule  of  action,  because 
that  we  believe  that  neither  party  (the  women 
or  the  minors)  are  always  the  best  judges  of  what 
is  for  their  good.  Let  us  be  convinced  that  they 
are,  and  we  will  cheerfully  aid  in  according  them 
•all  that  they  have  set  their  hearts  upon. 

We  entered  upon  the  preparation  of  this  work 
with  the  avowal  of  our  high  regard  for  the  sex, 
and  our  desire  to  promote  their  real  interests  in 
all  possible  ways.  If  we  have  opposed  woman- 
suffrage  with  zeal,  if  we  have  sought  to  dissuade 
women  from  entering  on  certain  pursuits  and  call- 
ings, it  has  been,  not  from  any  unkindly  motive  or 
any  desire  that  they  should  be  restrained  from 
occupying  any  sphere  or  fulfilling  any  duty  to 
which  God  has  called ;  them  but  because  we  were 
convinced  that  the  suffrage,  and  the  pursuits  to 
which  we  objected,  would  prove  an  injury  and  a 


GENERAL   REVIEW   OF   THE    SUBJECT.    379 

blight  upon  their  character  and  reputation.  We 
would  have  all  women  what  some  whom  it  has 
been  our  happiness  to  know,  are  :  modest,  virtu- 
ous, pure,  and  loving,  of  amiable  disposition,  clear 
intellect,  and  sound  judgment ;  in  short,  God's 
last,  best  earthly  gift  to  man,  his  help-meet,  friend, 
and  counselor. 

It  is  a  source  of  great  gratification  to  us,  to 
know  that  the  views  we  have  advocated  in  this 
volume  are  fast  gaining  ground  in  our  own  coun- 
try ;  that  here,  sooner  than  anywhere  else  on 
earth,  woman  is  likely  to  be  enfranchised  from 
every  bondage  which  prevents  her  from  occupy- 
ing the  sphere  which  the  Creator  designed  she 
should  occupy;  while  yet  she  maintains  with  hon- 
or and  dignity,  that  subject-condition  to  which  she 
was  assigned  in  Eden. 

There  is  progress,  not  always,  perhaps,  in 
exactly  the  right  direction,  though  often  the 
deviation  is  but  slight,  but  still  progress  in  all 
respects  in  the  condition  and  rights  of  women,  and 
progress  is  infinitely  preferable  to  stagnation. 

Looking  back  as  some  of  us  can,  to  a  period 
forty  years  ago,  we  shall  see  how  great  are  the 
changes  which  have  transpired  in  woman's  condi- 
tion in  that  time. 

The  young  woman  of  those  days,  at  eighteen, 
was  a  very  good  cook ;  she  could  wash  and  iron 
skillfully,  could  sew,  knit,  and  spin.  Except  on 
state  occasions,  her  dress  was  a  plain,  neat  calico ; 


380     GENERAL    REVIEW    OP    THE    SUBJECT. 

or,  in  winter,  of  woolen  stuff;  her  cheeks  had  the 
glow  of  health,  for  she  knew  nothing  of  disease ; 
her  life  was  simple  and  pure,  and  she  looked  for- 
ward with  a  confidence  which  time  selcfom  failed 
to  justify,  to  the  day  when  she  should  be  a  happy 
bride  and  reign  a  queen  in  her  own  household. 
This  was  the  bright  side.  But  useful  and  happy 
as  she  was,  her  education  was  but  scanty  ;  she 
could  read  and  write,  she  knew  a  little  of  the  ele- 
ments of  arithmetic,  geography,  and  possibly  a 
trifle  of  grammar  and  history.  Politics  did  not 
much  disturb  her,  though  she  had  a  vague  idea, 
that  for  the  preservation  of  the  country,  all  men 
ought  to  vote  as  her  father  did,  and  wondered 
that  any  .were  so  perverse  as  not  to  do  so.  If  she 
possessed  a  natural  taste  for  music,  she  attended 
the  singing-school,  was  duly  escorted  therefrom 
by  a  rustic  swain,  and  in  process  of  time  joined 
the  village  choir,  and  perhaps  performed  wi-th 
remarkable  skill  her  part  of  one  of  those  wonder- 
ful fugues,  in  which  the  whole  choir  seemed 
engaged  in  playing  the  game  of  tag.  As  to 
instrumental  music,  she  knew  nothing  more  of  it 
than  could  be  extracted  from  «•  the  accordeon, 
though,  perchance,  she  might  be  able  to  ac- 
company her  lover  with  her  voice,  as  he  played 
some  simple  tune  on  the  fiddle  or  flute.  To  own 
a  piano,  and  especially  to  be  able  to  play  a 
tune  upon  it,  was  only  the  privilege  of  the  fami- 
lies of  the  very  rich ;  and  even  with  them 


GENERAL    REVIEW    OF    THE    SUBJECT. 

was  regarded  as  an  almost  sinful  waste  of  time. 
It  was  very  doubtful  if  she  had  ever  learned  to 
dance ;  if  she  had,  it  was  only  some  simple  qua- 
drilles, or  the  old-fashioned  contra-dance.  The 
polka  and  waltz,  to  say  nothing  of  the  Schottische, 
the  Lancers,  or  the  German,  would  have  shocked 
her  sense  of  propriety.  Of  all  the  sciences  and 
belles-lettres,  which  go  to  make  up  a  modern, 
fashionable  education,  she  was  utterly  ignorant, 
and  if  she  had  ever  heard  of,  or  read  any  novels, 
they  were  either,  "  The  Children  of  the  Abbey," 
"  The  Scottish  Chiefs,"-  "  Thaddeus  of  Warsaw," 
"The  Mysteries  of  Udolpho,"  "Dunallan," 
"  Thinks  I  to  Myself;  or,  Coelebs  in  Search  of  a 
Wife  ;"  or,  by  a  bare  possibility,  "  Redwood,"  or 
some  volume  of  "  Waverley,"  then  just  issued. 
She  could  not  have  entertained  a  young  gallant 
for  five  minutes  with  small  talk  about  the  last 
novel,  and  as  to  magazines,  they  were  not ;  but  if 
the  young  gentleman  would  stay  to  tea,  he  could 
have  choice  wheat,  or  rye  bread,  which  her  own 
hands  had  made,  and  cake  which  would  surpass  any 
thing  to  be  found  at  the  confectioner's  ;  rich,  golden 
butter,  which  was  wholly  the  product  of  her  skill ; 
and  though  the  table  was  old  and  dark,  it  was 
covered  with  a  snow-white  cloth,  which,  very  pos- 
sibly, she  herself  had  spun.  Visiting  her  a  few 
years  later,  you  would  find  her  with  her  beauty  .a 
little  faded,  it  may  be,  and  the  face  perhaps  less 
joyous  and  spirituelle ;  her  cares  as  wife  and 


382      GENERAL    REVIEW    OF    THE    SUBJECT. 

mother  had  rendered  her  somewhat  more  of 
the  earth,  earthy ;  yet  all  were  performed  with  a 
conscientiousness  and  fidelity,  a  neatness  and 
attention  to  detail,  which  left  nothing  uncared 
for.  She  had  no  time  now  for  books  or  intel- 
lectual improvement,  but  must  go  on  as  she 
had  begun,  as  a  model  wife  and  housekeeper 
in  all  things  appertaining  to  the  comfort  of  her 
family. 

If,  in  this  simple,  healthful  life  of  the  young 
maiden  of  forty  years  ago,  we  find  little  which  is 
not  now  changed  for  the  worse,  except  it  may  be 
a  higher  and  better  intellectual  culture  (though 
even  this  is  a  little  in  doubt),  the  progress  in  a  bet- 
ter life  of  the  household  has  been  far  greater.  The 
health  of  the  women  of  the  higher  classes  at  the 
present  day,  is  much  less  sound  and  stable  than 
that  of  the  matrons  of  forty  or  even  thirty  years 
ago ;  but  though  this  is  a  serious  drawback  to  the 
happiness  and  -comfort  of  the  family  life,  the  high- 
er education,  the  wider  range  of  thought,  the  more 
complete  intellectual  companionship,  in  a  great 
measure,  compensate  for  the  other  ills,  and  if  we 
can  but  substitute  a  more  rational  education  for 
the  absurd  fashionable  one,  which  every  reason- 
able person  must  so  heartily  deprecate,  the  ratio  of 
progress  will  be  such  as  to  give  us  new  cause  of 
congratulation.  There  are  cheering  signs  of  the. 
near  approach  of  this  beneficent  reform.  The 
great  error  of  the  past  forty  years  in  the  education 


GENERAL  REVIEW  OF  THE  SUBJECT. 

of  women,  has  been  that  we  have  sought  to  bring 
about  mental  development  while  ignoring  entirely 
the  claims  of  both  the  body  and  the  moral  nature. 
Such  one-sided  culture  could  not  fail  to  be  harm- 
ful, and  the  more  successful  it  has  been,  the  more 
injury  has  it  done.  The  mind,  debilitated  by  the 
cramming  process,  has  sought  relief  in  the  stimu- 
lating influence  of  the  most  vapid  and  trashy  sen- 
sational novels,  and  an  equally  trashy  magazine 
literature,  and  has  at  last  reached  that  condition 
in  which  memory  is  weakened,  consecutive  serious 
thought  has  become  impossible,  and  the  whole  intel- 
lectual powers  are  too  often  occupied  with  the  most 
frivolous  topics.  The  body,  neglected  in  all  except 
its  outward  adornings,  gives  speedy  tokens  of  its 
premature  decay  in  weakness,  ill-health,  and  ina- 
bility to  bear  even  slight  exposures  to  the  vicissi- 
tudes of  weather,  which  the  young  maiden  of 
forty  years  ago  would  have  regarded  as  only 
enhancing  her  enjoyment.  The  physical  frame 
should  have  been  developed  in  harmony  with  the 
mind  by  vigorous  and  health-giving  enterprise,  and 
by  the  performance  of  domestic  duties,  and  then 
both  body  and  mind  would  have  been  capable  of 
higher  and  better  attainments.  But  the  moral 
nature  has  been  as  much  neglected  as  the  body  in 
the  fashionable  education  of  the  day.  The  princi- 
ples of  truthfulness,  spotless  honor,  and  strict, 
unflinching  integrity,  have  not  been  practically 
enforced.  Petty  deception,  injustice,  class  distinc- 

15* 


384      GENERAL    REVIEW    OF    THE    SUBJECT. 

tions,  and  falsehood  in  little  matters,  have  been 
passed  over  as  things  of  no  moment,  even  when 
they  have  not  been  actually  encouraged,  so  long 
as  they  inured  to  the  teacher's  benefit.  The 
moral  culture  in  our  boys'  schools  and  colleges  has 
been  bad  enough,  and  we  are  feeling  its  evil  effects 
throughout  the  whole  structure  of  society ;  but 
that  of  our  fashionable  female  seminaries  is  greatly 
worse,  inculcating  a  lower  sense  of  honor,  giving 
predominance  to  false  standards  of  right  and  wrong, 
prompting  to  no  high  aims,  searing  the  conscience, 
and  hardening  the  heart. 

But  we  are  not  without  hope  that  the  worst 
point  has  been  reached  even  in  the  schools.  More 
attention  is  certainly  given  to  physical  education 
than  formerly,  and  though  its  outcroppings,  in  the 
protracted  and  exciting  dances  kept  up  till  near 
morning,  in  the  almost  equally  exciting  skating 
parties,  where  the  health  is  often  greatly  periled, 
and  in  the  questionable  velocipede  riding,  are  not 
exactly  in  the  right  direction,  even  these  in  mod- 
eration may  be  better  than  an  entire  absence  of 
exercise,  or  the  moping  walk  in  long  procession 
through  the  public  streets,  which  was  at  one  time 
the  semi-weekly  penance  called  exercise,  in  many 
of  the  fashionable 'Schools. 

What  is  really  wanted,  and  is  beginning  to  be 
practiced  by  our  best  teachers,  is  not  so  much  any 
system  of  female  gymnastics,  Indian  clubs,  swing- 
ing of  dumb-bells,  pulling  at  weights,  and  all  the 


O 

f^ 


GENERAL    REVIEW    OP    THE    SUBJECT.     337 

varied  motions  which  have  been  invented  to  call 
the  different  muscles  into  activity.  Though  these 
are  very  good  in  their  way,  as  some  form  of 
exercise  which  shall  occupy  and  interest  the  mind 
while  it  keeps  the  body  in  motion — climbing  moun- 
tains, cultivating  botany  in  the  field,  rowing,  the 
study  of  geology  and  mineralogy  in  situ,  and,  as  an 
agreeable  alternative  to  these,  the  exercise  of  the 
sublime  art  of  bread-making,  the  skillful  washing, 
clear-starching,  and  ironing  of  some  of  the  many 
dainty  garments  which  constitute  their  wardrobe. 
The  vigorous  wielding  of  the  broom  is  also  not  a 
bad  exercise,  especially  on  a  hard  and  heavy 
carpet.  It  calls  into  active  motion  the  muscles  of 
the  chest  and  shoulders,  and  is  fully  equal  for 
this  purpose  to  the  rings  or  the  Indian  clubs  of  the 
gymnasium.  It  is  a  pity  that  spinning  on  the 
great  wheel  could  not  be  revived.  The  motions 
were  not  too  violent,  and  while  they  were  not  in- 
compatible with  steady  and  consecutive  thought, 
they  contributed  greatly  to  an  erect  and  graceful 
carriage  of  the  head  and  shoulders. 

The  moral  culture  will,  we  hope,  come  in  time. 
The  example  of  the  best  of  the  training-schools 
and  the  colleges  and  high  schools  for  both  sexes, 
will  not  be  without  its  influence ;  but  while  so 
many  of  these  fashionable  schools  are  controlled 
by  those  who  are  actuated  by  no  lofty  principle, 
who  seek  patronage  on  other  grounds  than  those 
of  the  moral  excellence  of  their  instruction,  and 


388     GENERAL    REVIEW    OF    THE    SUBJECT. 

who  are  accustomed  in  their  intercourse  with 
wealthy  patrons  to 

Bend  the  supple  hinges  of  the  knee, 
That  thrift  may  follow  fawning, 

we  can  hardly  expect  that  they  should  all  become 
remarkable  for  their  inculcation  of  the  loftier 
virtues.  It  is  something  gained  that  sensible, 
practical,  intelligent  women,  themselves  long  con- 
nected with  the  education  of  girls,  see  these  evils, 
and  are  taking  measures  to  obviate  them  as  far  as 
possible.  We  look  with  great  interest  for  the 
results  of  the  noble  plan  proposed  by  Miss 
Catharine  E.  Beech  er,  in  her  paper  read  before  the 
National  Educational  Convention  at  Trenton,  in 
August,  1869,  which  we  have  printed  in  full  in 
the  appendix  to  this  work.*  It  marks  an  era  in 
the  education  of  woman  in  this  country.  We 
hail  this  thorough  canvass  of  woman's  position, 
rights,  and  duties,  which  is  now  in  progress,  for 
another  reason,  while  we  feel  certain  that  the 
more  thoroughly  the  subject  is  discussed,  the  more 
clearly  will  the  impracticability  of  female  suffrage 
be  demonstrated,  and  there  will  yet  come  out 
of  the  discussion  much  of  positive  good  for  woman. 
The  disabilities  under  which  woman  has  labored, 
the  imperfection  of  female  education,  the  lack  of 
sufficient  employment,  the  great  over-crowding  in 
the  lower  grades  of  work,  and  the  unjust  difference 

*  See  APPENDIX  A. 


GENERAL    REVIEW    OF    THE    SUBJECT.      339 

between  the  compensation  given  to  women   for 
certain  kinds  of  work,  and  that  paid  to  men  for 
doing  the  same  things,  the  want  of  a  vocation  so 
strongly  felt  by  a  class  of  earnest,  educated,  but 
hitherto  unemployed  women ;  all  these,  and  other 
kindred  grievances  of  the  sex,  have  not  hitherto 
received   their  full  share  of  consideration.     But 
the  present  agitation,  notwithstanding  the  efforts 
of  some  injudicious  partisans  on  both  sides,  will 
now   effect  a  thorough  ventilation  of  the  whole 
subject,  and  as  there  is  no  desire  on  the  part  of 
any  intelligent,  right-minded  man  to  do  injustice 
to  woman,  we  may  feel  confident  that  all  the  real 
wrongs  will  be  righted  as  soon  as  they  can  be 
fairly  reached.    Most  of  them,  indeed,  are  already 
in  progress  of  amelioration.     The  promptness  with 
which  both  the  larger  trades-unions  and  the  recent 
Labor  Congress,  which  closed  its  session  in  August, 
1869,   have    recognized   and   admitted    to    their 
organizations    the    real    representatives    of    the 
working-women's    trade    associations ;     and    the 
readiness  with  which  most  of  the  employers  have 
acceded   to  the  requests   of  the  associations  for 
increase    of    women's  compensation,    give  strong 
ground  for  hope  that  henceforward  we  shall  have 
less   complaint  of  the  inferior  wages  of  women. 
The  over-crowding  of  applicants  for  work  which 
unskilled  or  but  partially  skilled  women  can  per- 
form, and  the  consequent  reduction  of  their  wages 
to  the  point  of  starvation,  is  a  matter  requiring 


390    GENERAL    REVIEW    OF    THE    SUBJECT. 

time  and  patience  to  remedy.  The  best  panaceas 
for  it  are  those  which  we  have  urged  so  strongly, 
and  which  others  are  now  urging — better  industrial 
education,  the  diversion  of  a  large  proportion  of 
these  working-women  to  domestic  employment, 
the  avoidance  of  country  competition  and  under- 
bidding, and,  as  soon  as  it  can  be  accomplished, 
trade  associations  and  co-operation. 

The  earnest  and  really  noble  wromen,  who, 
conscious  of  their  ability  to  be  something  other 
than  the  gay,  frivolous  butterflies  of  society,  are 
seeking  for  a  worthy  vocation,  will  find  in  the 
suggestions  we  have  made  to  them  in  the  previous 
chapter — suggestions  which  their  best  friends  will 
reiterate — a  better  way  of  utilizing  their  remark, 
able  gifts,  than  in  agitation  for  the  ballot  for 
women,  a  boon  which,  like  the  fabled  apples  of 
Sodom,  would  turn  to  ashes  and  bitterness  the 
moment  they  seized  it. 

For  them,  if  they  have,  as  they  have  manifest- 
ed in  the  past,  the  true  heroic  spirit,  there  is  a 
grand  and  noble  future.  To  be  the  world's  bene- 
factors, to  illumine  its  dark  places,  to  give  hope 
and  joy  to  the  downcast,  peace  and  comfort  to  the 
erring,  health  to  the  sick  ;  to  lift  up  those  who 
have  fallen,  and  bid  them,  as  the  Divine  Master 
had  done  before,  to  go  and  sin  no  more,  to  rescue 
the  orphaned  and  vagrant  child  from  a  life  of 
wretchedness  and  sin,  to  raise  the  victims  of  appe- 
tite from  their  degradation,  and  make  homes  now 


GENERAL    REVIEW    OF    THE    SUBJECT; 

desolated  by  intemperance,  happy  and  peaceful, 
and  to  diffuse  over  our  own  and  other  lands  the 
blessed  influences  of  lives  full  of  all  pure  and 
generous  deeds — these  are  objects  worth  living 
for,  worth-  dying  for.  The  women  of  America 
who  shall  organize  and  develop  this  glorious  mis- 
sion for  good,  will  deserve  and  will  receive  from  a 
grateful  country  such  honors  as  no  crowned  queen, 
no  proud  empress,  can  ever  hope  to  attain.  On 
them,  too,  will  fall  Heaven's  highest  benediction : 
"  Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  the 
least  of  these  my  brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto 
me." 

Thus,  then,  we  take  leave  of  our  readers.  We 
have  sought,  with  all  plainness  of  speech,  but  with 
the  deepest  regard  and  reverence  for  women,  to 
show  them  from  Scripture,  from  history,  and  from 
reason,  what  were  the  best  remedies  for  the  evils 
and  wrongs  from  which  they  suffered ;  what  the 
advancement  and  progress  to  which  they  should 
attain.  Desiring  to  see  them,  in  the  future  as  in 
the  past,  women  and  not  men,  beings  of  gentle- 
ness and  grace,  our  companions,  our  sympathizing 
friends,  and  not  either  our  slaves  or  our  tyrants, 
we  have  endeavored  to  indicate  to  them  in 
what  directions  their  condition  might  be  bene- 
fited, their  lives  made  happier  and  more  useful, 
and  their  own  comfort  and  joy  enhanced. 

Knowing  the  evils  that  were  to  be  apprehended 
from  their  participation  in  political  life,  and  the 


392     GENERAL    REVIEW    OF    THE    SUBJECT. 

weighty  reasons  which  forbade  their  entering  upon 
it, — reasons  lying  at  the  very  foundation  of  all 
society  and  government,  and  inherent  in  their  very 
nature,  as  well  as  those  which  were  specially 
pertinent  to  our  American  conditions  of  suffrage, 
to  the  good  order  of  society,  and  to  their  own  mod- 
esty and  delicacy — we  have  endeavored  to  set  these^ 
before  them  as  plainly  and  clearly  as  possible,  and 
to  answer  the  arguments  of  those  who  have  advo- 
cated woman-suffrage. 

How  far  we  have  succeeded,  remains  to  be 
seen;  but  if  our  humble  effort  shall  have  stimu- 
lated any  of  the  sex  to  more  earnest  endeavor  . 
after  a  higher  and  more  useful  life ;  if  it  shall  have 
aided  to  relieve  any  woman  from  the  unjust  bur- 
dens borne  so  patiently,  and  have  turned  any  from 
the  vain  pursuit  of  the  ignis  fatuus  of  the  ballot, 
we  shall  feel  that  those  months  of  toil  have  not 
been  wholly  in  vain. 


APPENDIX   A. 

[Miss  Beecher's  essay,  read  before  the  National  Educational  Conven. 
tion  at  Trenton,  N.  J.,  in  August,  1869,  and  subsequently  published  in 
Appleton's  Journal,  is,  in  the  main,  so  pertinent  to  the  topics  discussed 
in  this  work,  and  presents  so  strongly  the  need  of  a  better,  practical,  and 
industrial  education  for  women,  as  something  of  far  greater  advantage 
to  them  than  the  possession  of  the  suffrage,  that  we  felt  we  could  not 
better  aid  in  carrying  out  the  philanthropic  purposes  of  its  author  than 
by  giving  it  the  advantage  of  the  extensive  circulation  of  our  work.— 
L.  P.  B.] 

SOMETHING  FOR  WOMEN  BETTER  THAN  THE  BALLOT. 

BY  CATHARINE  E.   BEECHEB. 

Now  that  negro  suffrage  is  accomplished,  the 
next  political  struggle  that  will  agitate  this  coun- 
try, as  well  as  Europe,  will  be  that  of  labor  and  cap- 
ital, and,  connected  with  it,  the  question  of  woman- 
suffrage. 

That  there  is  something  essentially  wrong  in 
the  present  condition  of  women,  is  every  year 
growing  more  and  more  apparent,  while  the  pub- 
lic mind  is  more  and  more  perplexed  with  diverse 
methods  proposed  for  the  remedy.  In  one  of  our 
leading  secular  papers,  we  read  this  statement  of 
the  case  from  the  pen  of  a  working-woman  : — 

"  There  are  so  few  departments  of  labor  open 
to  women,  that,  in  those  departments,  the  supply 


394  APPENDIX   A. 

of  female  labor  is  frightfully  in  advance  of  the 
demand.  The  business  world  offers  the  lowest 
wages  to  eager  applicants,  certain  that  they  will 
be  ravenously  clutched.  And,  indeed,  to  see  the 
mob  of  women  that  block  and  choke  these  few  and 
narrow  gates  open  to  them — the  struggle — the 
press — the  agony — the  trembling  eagerness — you 
might  suppose  they  were  entering  the  temple  of 
fame  or  wealth,  or,  at  least,  had  some  cosy  little 
cottage  ahead,  in  which  competence  awaited  the 
winner.  Nothing  of  the  sort.  These  are  blind 
alleys,  one  and  all.  The  mere  getting  in,  and 
keeping  in,  are  the  meager  objects  of  this  terrible 
struggle.  A  woman  who  has  not  genius,  or  is  not 
a  rare  exception,  has  no  opening — no  promotion — 
no  career.  She  turns  hopelessly  on  a  pivot;  at 
every  turn  the  sand  gives  way,  and  she  sinks  low- 
er. At  every  turn  light  and  air  are  more  difficult, 
and  she  turns  and  digs  her  own  grave.  Do  you 
say  these  are  figures  of  speech  ?  Here,  then,  are 
figures  of  fact.  There  are  noiv  thirty  thousand 
women  in  New  York,  whose  labor  averages  from 
twelve  to  fifteen  hours  a  day,  and  yet  whose  income 
seldom  exceeds  thirty-three  cents  a  day.  Operat- 
ors on  sewing-machines,  and  a  few  others,  enjoy 
comparative  opulence,  gaining  five  to  eight  dollars 
a  week,  though  from  this  are  to  be  paid  three  or 
four  dollars  for  a  bed  in  a  wretched  room  with 
several  other  occupants,  often  without  a  window 
or  any  provision  for  pure  air,  and  with  only  the 


APPENDIX   A  395 

poor  food  found  where  such  rooms  abound.  Thou- 
sands of  ladies,of  good  family  and  education,  as  teach- 
ers receive  from  two  to  six  hundred  dollars  a  year. 
Few  women  get  beyond  that,  and  a  large  propor- 
tion of  them  are  mothers  with  children.  Over 
these  poorly-paid  laborers  broods  the  sense  of 
hopeless  toil.  There  is  no  bright  future.  The 
woman  who  is  fevered,  hurried,  and  aching,  who 
works  from  daylight  to  midnight,  loathing  her 
mean  room,  her  meaner  dress,  her  joyless  life, 
will,  in  ten  years,  neither  better  herself  nor  her 
children.  The  American  working-woman  has  no 
share  in  the  American  privilege  given  to  the  poor- 
est male  laborer — a  growing  income,  a  bank 
account,  and  every  office  of  the  Republic,  if  he 
have  brain  and  courage  to  win  them." 

This  describes  the  condition  and  feelings  of  not 
all,  but  of  a  large  class  of  women  in  our  larger 
cities,  who  must  earn  their  own  livelihood.  But, 
in  the  medium  classes,  as  it  respects  wealth,  the 
unmarried  or  widowed  women  feel  that  they  are 
an  incumbrance  to  fathers  and  brothers,  who  often 
unwillingly  support  them  from  pride  or  duty. 
For  such,  also,  there  is  "  no  opening — no  promo- 
tion— no  career ;"  and  they  must  remain  depend- 
ent chiefly  on  the  labor  of  others  till  marriage  is 
offered,  which,  to  vast  numbers,  is  a  positive  im- 
possibility. 

This  has  lately  been  proved,  from  the  census, 


396  APPENDIX   A. 

by  a  leading  New  York  paper.  In  that  it  is  shown 
that,  in  all  our  large  cities,  the  male  inhabitants, 
under  fifteen  and  over  the  usual  marriageable  age, 
are  greatly  in  excess  of  the  females,  and,  conse- 
quently, the  women  at  the  marriageable  age  are 
greatly  in  excess  of  the  marriageable  men.  Thus, 
in  New  York  City,  according  to  the  statements  of 
the  New  York  Times,  there  are  eleven  thousand 
more  females  than  males,  of  all  ages,  while  there 
are  one  hundred  and  thirty-two  thousand  more 
women  of  marriageable  age  than  men  of  that  age. 
This  is  probably  a  large  estimate,  but  the  dispro- 
portion is  at  all  events  enormous. 

And,  in  the  rural  districts  of  New  York  State, 
we  find  a  similar  state  of  things ;  for  the  excess 
of  females,  of  all  ages,  is  twenty-one  thousand, 
while  the  excess  of  marriageable  women,  if  at  the 
same  ratio  as  in  New  York  City,  is  two  hundred 
and  sixty-three  thousand.  Thus,  it  appears  that, 
in  the  single  State  of  New  York,  there  are  over 
three  hundred  thousand  women  to  whom  marriage 
is  impossible.  The  same  state  of  things  will  be 
seen  in  all  our  older  States. 

The  most  mournful  feature  in  this  case  is  the 
fact  that  most  of  these  women  have  never  been 
trained  for  any  kind  of  business  by  which  they 
can  earn  an  independent  livelihood.  The  Work- 
ing-woman's Protective  Union,  of  New  York  City? 
reports  that,  of  thirteen  thousand  applicants,  not 
one-half  were  qualified  to  do  any  kind  of  useful 


APPENDIX   A.  397 

work  in  a  proper  manner.  The  societies  that  are 
formed  to  furnish  work  for  poor  women  report  that 
their  greatest  impediment  is  that  so  few  can  sew 
decently,  or  do  any  other  work  properly. 

The  heads  of  dress-making  establishments  report 
that  very  few  women  can  be  found  who  can  be 
trusted  to  complete  a  dress,  and  that  those  who 
are  competent  find  abundant  work  and  good  wages. 
The  demand  for  really  superior  mantua-makers  is 
almost  universal  in  country  places,  and  even  in 
many  of  our  cities. 

In  former  days  sewing  was  taught  in  all  schools 
for  girls,  but  now  it  is  banished  from  our  common 
schools,  and  the  mothers  at  home  are  too  neglect- 
ful, or  too  ignorant,  or  too  pressed  with  labor,  to 
supply  the  deficiency. 

It  was  reported  in  the  New  York  Tribune,  not 
long  since,  that  there  are  at  least  twenty  thousand 
professed  prostitutes  in  New  York  City  alone, 
while  Boston,  in  proportion  to  its  number  of  in- 
habitants, shows  a  larger  number,  and  all  our  cities 
give  similar  reports.  This,  also,  is  an  estimate 
probably  much  in  excess  of  the  reality ;  but  the 
truth  is  bad  enough  and  mournful  enough.  Multi- 
tudes of  these  unfortunates  have  only  two  alterna- 
tives— on  the  one  hand,  poor  lodgings,  shabby 
dress,  poor  food,  and  ceaseless  daily  toil  from  ten 
to  fifteen  hours  ;  on  the  other  hand,  the  tempter 
offers  a  pleasant  home,  a  servant  to  do  the  work, 
fine  dress,  the  theater  and  ball,  and  kind  attentions, 


398  APPENDIX    A. 

with  no  labor  or  care.  Where  is  the  strength  of 
virtue  in  those  who  despise  and  avoid  these  out- 
casts, that  might  not  fall  in  such  perilous  as- 
saults ? 

It  is  this  dreadful  state  of  temptation  which 
accounts  for  the  fact  that  crime  increases  faster 
among  women  than  among  men.  Thus,  in  Massa- 
chusetts, during  the  last  ten  years,  among  the 
men  of  that  State,  crime  decreased  at  the  rate  of 
eight  thousand  five  hundred  and  seven  less  than 
during  the  ten  preceding  years,  while,  among 
women,  crime  increased  at  the  rate  of  three  hun- 
dred and  sixty-eight  during  the  same  period  ;  that 
is,  over  eight  thousand  less  men,  and  over  three 
hundred  more  women,  were  guilty  of  crime  than  in 
the  previous  ten  years. 

But,  turning  from  these  to  the  daughters  of  the 
most  wealthy  class,  those  who  have  generous  and 
elevated  aspirations  also  feel  that  for  them,  too, 
there  is  "  no  opening — no  promotion — no  career," 
except  that  of  marriage,  and  for  this  they  are 
.trained  to  feel  that  it  is -disgraceful  to  seek.  They 
have  nothing  to  do  but  wait  to  be  sought.  Train- 
ed to  believe  marriage  their  highest  boon,  they  are 
disgraced  for  seeking  it,  and  must  affect  indiffer- 
ence. Meantime,  to  do  any  thing  to  earn  their 
own  independence  is  what  father  and  brothers 
would  deem  a  disgrace  to  themselves  and  their 
family.  For  women  of  high  position  to  work  for 
their  livelihood,  in  most  cases  custom  decrees  as 


APPENDIX    A.  399 

disgraceful.  And  then,  if  cast  down  by  poverty, 
they  have  been  trained  to  nothing  that  would  earn 
a  support,  or,  if  by  chance  they  had  some  resource, 
all  avenues  for  its  employment  are  thronged  with 
needy  applicants.  Ordinarily,  and  with  few  excep- 
tions, there  are  only  two  employments  for  such 
women  that  do  not  involve  loss  of  social  position, 
viz.,  school-teaching  and  boarding.  But  every 
opening  for  a  school-teacher  has  scores,  and  some- 
times hundreds,  of  applicants,  while  often  the  pro- 
tracted toils  in  unventilated  and  crowded  school- 
rooms destroy  health.  To  keep  boarders  demands 
capital  to  start,  and  an  experience  and  training 
in  household  management  and  economy  rarely 
taught  to  the  daughters  of  wealth.  In  this  coun- 
try housework  is  regarded  as  dishonorable,  and 
rich  men  make  no  attempts  to  train  their  daugh- 
ters to  any  other  business  that  would  be  a  resort 
in  poverty. 

Few  can  realize  the  perils  which  threaten  our 
country  from  the  present  condition  of  women. 
The  grand  instrumentality,  not  only  for  perpetuat- 
ing our  race,  but  for  its  training  to  eternal  bless- 
edness, is  the  family  state,  and  in  this  woman  is 
the  chief  minister.  As  the  general  rule,  man  is 
the  laborer  out  of  the  home,  to  provide  for  its 
support,  while  woman  is  the  daily  minister  to  train 
its  inmates.  But  there  are  now  many  fatal  influ- 
ences that  combine  to  unfit  her  for  these  sacred 
duties.  Not  the  least  of  these  is  the  decay  of 


400  APPENDIX    A. 

female  health,  engendering  irritable  nerves  in  both 
mother  and  offspring,  and  thus  greatly  increasing 
the  difficulties  of  physical  and  still  more  of  moral 
training. 

The  factory  girls,  and  many  also  in  shops  and 
stores,  must  stand  eight  and  ten  hours  a  day,  often 
in  a  poisonous  atmosphere,  causing  decay  of  con- 
stitution, and  forbidding  healthful  offspring.  The 
sewing-machine  lessens  the  wages  of  needlewomen, 
while  employers  testify  that  those  who  use  it  for 
steady  work  become  hopelessly  diseased,  and  can 
not  rear  healthy  children.  In  the  more  wealthy 
circles,  the  murderous  fashions  of  dress  make  ter- 
rible havoc  with  the  health  of  young  girls,  while 
impure  air,  unhealthful  food  and  condiments,  lack 
of  exercise,  and  over-stimulation  of  brain  and 
nerves,  are  completing  the  ruin  of  health  and  fam- 
ily hopes. 

The  state  of  domestic  service  is  another  element 
that  is  undermining  the  family  state.  Disgraced 
by  the  stigma  of  our  late  slavery,  and  by  the 
influx  into  our  kitchens  of  ignorant  and  uncleanly 
foreigners,  American  women  forsake  home  circles 
for  the  unhealthful  shops  and  mills. 

Then  the  thriftless  young  housekeepers  from 
boarding-school  life  have  no  ability  either  to  teach 
or  to  control  their  incompetent  assistants,  while 
ceaseless  "  worries "  multiply  in  parlor,  nursery, 
and  kitchen.  The  husband  is  discouraged  by  the 
waste  and  extravagance,  and  wearied  with  endless 


APPEXDIX    A.  401 

complaints,  and  home  becomes  any  thing  but  the 
harbor  of  comfort  and  peace. 

Add  to  all  this,  the  now  common  practice  which 
destroys  maternal  health  and  unborn  offspring — 
the  loose  teachings  of  free  love — the  baleful  influ- 
ence of  spiritualism,  so  called — the  fascinations  of 
the  demi-monde  for  the  rich,  and  of  lower  haunts 
for  the  rest,  with  the  poverty  of  thousands  of 
women  who  but  for  desperate  temptations  would 
be  pure,  and  the  extent  of  the  malign  influences 
undermining  the  family  state — that  chief  hope  of 
our  race — is  appalling. 

Woman,  in  the  Protestant  world,  is  educated 
only  for  marriage,  hoping  to  have  some  one  to 
work  for  her  support,  and,  when  this  is  not  gained, 
little  else  is  provided. 

The  Roman  Catholic  Church,  while  it  honored 
the  institution  of  marriage  as  a  sacrament,  and 
upheld  its  sanctity,  yet  taught  that  woman  had  a 
still  higher  ministry ;  and  for  this,  large  endow- 
ments, comfortable  positions,  and  honorable  dis- 
tinction, were  provided.  The  women  who  devoted 
their  time  and  wealth  and  labors  to  orphans,  to 
the  sick,  and  to  the  poor,  were  honored  above 
married  women  as  saints,  who  not  only  laid  up 
treasures  in  heaven  for  themselves,  but  also  a 
stock  of  merits  to  supply  the  deficiencies  of  others. 
The  idea  of  self-sacrifice  and  self-denial  in  that 
church  was  so  honored  as  to  run  into  mischievous 
extremes,  so  that  rich  establishments  of  celibates 

16 


402  APPENDIX    A. 

of  both  sexes  multiplied  all  over  Christendom  till 
they  became  burdens  and  pests. 

This  drove  the  Protestant  world  to  the  other 
extreme,  so  that  no  provision  at  all  has  been  made 
for  the  single  woman.  She  must  marry,  or  have 
no  profession  that  leads  to  independence,  honor, 
and  wealth.  To  fit  young  men  for  their  profes- 
sions, thousands  and  millions  are  every  year  pro- 
vided, securing  by  endowments  the  highest  class 
of  teachers,  in  addition  to  every  advantage  of 
libraries,  apparatus,  and  buildings.  But  woman's 
profession  has  no  such  provisions  made  for  its 
elevated  duties. 

How  much  there  is  included  in  woman's  distinc- 
tive and  appropriate  duties,  and  how  much  science 
and  practical  training  are  demanded  properly  to 
prepare  for  them,  few  realize.  The  selection,  pre- 
paration, and  care  of  food  and  drinks  for  a  family 
are,  in  Europe,  made  an  art  and  science,  to  which 
the  most  literary  and  cultivated  devote  attention. 
The  selection,  fitting,  and  making  of  clothing  are 
other  branches  for  which  science  and  training  are 
demanded.  The  care  of  young  infants,  and  the 
nursing  of  the  mothers  demand  science  and  prac- 
tical training  as  much  as  any  profession-  of  the 
other  sex.  The  management  and  governing  of 
young  children  require  as  much  training  and  skill 
as  the  duties  of  the  statesman  or  warrior.  The 
nursing  and  care  of  the  sick,  if  performed  by  con- 
scientious, scientific,  and  well  -  trained  nurses, 


APPENDIX    A.  403 

would  save  thousands  of  the  victims  of  ignorance 
and  neglect. 

And  then  there  are  out-door  professions  con- 
nected with  a  home  which  are  as  suitable  for  women 
as  for  men.  The  business  of  raising  fruits  and 
flowers  is  especially  suited  to  woman,  as  also  the 
management  of  the  dairy ;  and  for  these  the  other 
sex  are  regularly  instructed  in  endowed  agricul- 
tural schools,  while  women  can  not  share  these 
advantages.  The  arts  that  ornament  a  home,  such 
as  drawing,  painting,  sculpture,  and  landscape  gar- 
dening, are  peculiarly  appropriate  for  women  as 
professions  by  which  to  secure  an  independence. 
Yet  but  a  few  have  the  opportunities  which  are 
abundantly  given  to  the  other  sex. 

These  are  all  employments  suited  to  woman, 
and  such  as  would  not  take  her  from  the  peaceful 
retreat  of  a  home  of  her  own,  which  by  these  pro- 
fessions she  might  earn.  Were  there  employ- 
ments for  women  honored  as  matters  of  science,  as 
are  the  professions  of  men  ;  were  institutions  pro- 
vided to  train  women  in  both  the  science  and 
practice  of  domestic  economy,  domestic  chemistry, 
and  domestic  hygiene,  as  men  are  trained  in 
agricultural  chemistry,  political  economy,  and  the 
healing  art ;  were  there  endowments  providing  a 
home  and  salary  for  women  to  train  their  own  sex 
in  its  distinctive  duties,  such  as  the  professors  of 
colleges  gain — immediately  a  liberal  profession 
would  be  created  for  women,  far  more  suitable  and 


404  APPENDIX    A. 

attractive  than  the  professions  of  men.  Let  this 
be  done,  and  every  young  girl  would  pursue 
her  education  with  an  inspiring  practical  end, 
would  gain  a  profession  suited  to  her  tastes,  and 
an  establishment  for  herself  equal  to  her  brother's, 
while  she  would  learn  to  love  and  honor  woman's 
profession. 

It  would  soon  become  the  custom,  as  it  now  is 
in  some  European  countries,  for  every  woman  to 
be  trained  to  some  business  that  would  secure  to 
her  honorable  independence. 

The  grand  difficulty,  which  those  who  are  seek- 
ing the  ballot  would  remedy,  is,  the  want  of 
honorable  and  remunerative  employment  for 
unmarried  or  widowed  women.  It  is  not  clear 
how  the  ballot  would  secure  this ;  while  a  long 
time  must  elapse  before  public  opinion  would 
arrive  at  this  result. 

But  the  attempt  to  establish  institutions,  well 
endowed  to  support  women  instructors,  and  carry- 
ing out  as  liberal  a  course  as  men  have  provided 
for  themselves,  would  have  an  immediate  influence, 
while  it  would  escape  the  prejudice  and  the  diffi- 
culties incident  to  giving  woman  the  ballot. 

Few  will  deny  that  the  various  departments  of 
domestic  economy  demand  science,  training,  and 
skill,  as  much  as  any  of  men's  professions.  But 
the  world  has  yet  to  see  the  first  invested  endow- 
ment to  secure  to  woman's  profession  what  has 
been  so  bountifully  given  to  men.  Never  yet  has 


APPENDIX  A.  405 

a  case  been  known  of  a  highly-educated  woman 
supported  by  an  endowment  to  train  her  sex  for 
any  one  department  of  woman's  profession.  Such 
favors  being  withheld,  the  distinctive  profession 
of  woman  is  undervalued  and  despised.  To  be  a 
teacher  of  young  children  would  be  shunned  by 
the  daughter  of  wealth  as  lowering  her  social 
position.  To  become  a  nurse  of  the  sick  for  a 
livelihood,  or  a  nurse  of  young  children,  would  be 
regarded  as  a  degradation;  while  to  become  a 
domestic  assistant  in  the  family  state  would  be 
regarded  as  the  depth  of  humiliation  to  any  in  a 
high  social  position. 

In  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  the  woman  of 
high  position,  culture,  and  benevolence,  is  honor- 
ed above  all  others,  if  she  remains  single,  and 
devotes  her  time  and  wealth  to  orphans,  to  nurse 
the  sick,  to  reclaim  the  vicious,  and  to  provide  for 
the  destitute.  She  becomes  a  lady  abbess,  or  the 
head  of  some  sisterhood,  where  high  position,  influ- 
ence, and  honor,  are  her  reward. 

And  the  priesthood  of  that  church  employ  all 
their  personal  and  official  influence  to  lead  women 
of  benevolence  and  piety  to  devote  time,  proper- 
ty, arid  prayers,  to  the  salvation  of  their  fellow- 
creatures  from  diseases  of  body,  ignorance,  and 
sin. 

But  Protestant  women,  as  yet,  have  been  influ- 
enced to  endow  institutions  for  men,  rather  than 
for  their  own  sex.  The  writer  obtained  from  the 


406  APPENDIX  A. 

treasurers  of  only  six  institutions  for  men  the  fol- 
lowing statement  of  benefactions  from,  women  : 

Miss  Plumnrer,  to  Cambridge  University,  to 
endow  one  professorship,  gave  $25,000 ;  Mary 
Townsend,  for  the  same,  $25,000  ;  Sarah  Jackson, 
for  the  same,  $10,000 ;  other  ladies,  in  sums  over 
$1,000,  to  the  same,  over  $30,000.  To  Andover 
Professional  School  of  Theology  ladies  have  given 
over  $65,000;  and,  of  this,  $30,000  by  one  lady- 
In  Illinois,  Mrs.  Garretson  has  given  to  one  pro- 
fessional school,  $300,000.-  In  Albany,  Mrs.  Dud- 
ley has  given,  for  a  scientific  institution  for  men, 
$105,000.  To  Beloit  College,  Wisconsin,  proper- 
ty has  been  given  by  one  lady,  valued  at  $30,000. 

Thus,  half  a  million  has  been  given  by  women 
to  these  six  colleges  and  professional  schools,  and 
all  in  the  present  century.  The  reports  of  simi- 
lar institutions  for  men  all  over  the  nation,  would 
show  similar  liberal  benefactions  of  women  to 
endow  institutions  for  the  other  sex,  while  for 
their  own  no  such  records  appear.  Where  is  there 
a  single  endowment  from  a  woman  to  secure  a  salary 
to  a  woman  teaching  her  own  proper  profession  ? 

But  a  time  is  coming  when  women  will  hon- 
orably perpetuate  their  name  and  memory  by 
bestowing  endowments  for  their  own  sex,  as 
they  have  so  often  done  for  men. 

The  first  indication  of  this  advance  is  the 
organization  of  an  association  of  prominent  ladies 
and  gentlemen  of  the  city  of  New  York,  for  the 


APPENDIX  A.  407 

purpose  of  establishing  institutions  in  which  high- 
ly-educated women  shall  be  supported  by  endow- 
ments to  train  their  own  sex  for  the  practical 
duties  of  the  family  state,  and  also,  to  some  busi- 
ness that  will  secure  to  them  an  independent 
home  and  income. 

The  plan  aimed  at  is  large  and  comprehensive, 
but  will  commence  on  a  small  scale,  and  be 
enlarged  as  means  and  experience  shall  warrant. 
When  completed,  it  will  include  these  depart- 
ments : — 

1.  The  Literary  Department,  which  will  "embrace 
a  course  of  study  and  training  for  the  main  pur- 
pose of  developing  the  mental  faculties.  Much 
that  goes  under  the  head  of  acquiring  knowledge 
will  be  omitted  until  it  is  decided  what  profession 
the  character  and  tastes  of  a  young  girl  indicate 
as  most  suitable.  When  this  is  decided,  the  stud- 
ies and  practical  training  will  be  regulated  with 
reference  to  it,  and  the  pupil  will  select  that 
department  of  general  knowledge  most  connected 
with  her  special  profession. 

The  public  mind  is  fast  approaching  this  method 
in  the  education  of  young  men  who  do  not  aim  at 
what  have  heretofore  been  called  the  liberal  pro- 
fessions, and  who  enter  institutions  where  the 
course  of  study  is  adapted  to  the  profession  to  be 
pursued.  At  the  same  time,  our  colleges  are 
gradually  modifying  mediaeval  methods  to  those 
which  bear  more  directly  on  practical  life. 


408  APPENDIX  A. 

2.  The  Domestic  Department,  in  which  the  pupils 
of   the  literary  department  will  be  received  and 
examined  as  to  their  practical  acquaintance  with 
the  varied  duties  of  the  family  state,  aiming  to 
supply  every  deficiency  in  past  training,  so  as  to 
fit  them  to  be  economical,  industrious,  and  expert 
housekeepers.     The  principal  of  this  department 
will  have  a  family  of  about  twelve,  consisting  of 
her  assistant  principal  and  ten  pupils,  who  will  be 
carried  through  a  regular  course  of  domestic  labor 
and   instruction,  and    then   vacate  their  place  to 
another  class  of  pupils.     In  another  family,  con- 
sisting of  stationary  residents,  another  assistant 
principal  will  superintend  the  training  of  servants 
to  be  conscientious  and  faithful  cooks,  chamber- 
maids, and  table-waiters,  and,  when  trained,  will 
provide  suitable  places  for  them. 

3.  The  Health  Department,  in  which  the  pupils 
of  the  literary  department  will  be  trained  to  pre- 
serve their  own  health,  and  also  to  superintend 
the  health  of  a  family.     In  this  department  the 
attempt  will  be  made  to  train  scientific  nurses  of 
the  sick,  monthly  nurses  of  mothers  and  infants, 
and   nurses  for  young  children.     With  scientific 
training  will  be  combined    moral  instruction  and 
influences  to  induce  the  sympathetic,  conscientious, 
and  benevolent  traits,  so  important  in  these  offices. 

4.  The   Normal  Department,  in  which    women 
will   be    trained   to  the    distinctive    duties   of  a 
school-teacher. 


APPENDIX  A.  409 

5.  The  Department  of  the  Fine  Arts,  in  which 
all  those  branches  employed  in  the  adornment  of 
a  home  will  receive  attention  ;  drawing,  painting, 
sculpture,   and    landscape    gardening,   which   are 
peculiarly  fitted  to  be  professions  for  women,  will 
be  included  in  this  department. 

6.  The   Industrial   Department,  the    chief  aim 
being  to  train  women  to  out-door  avocations  suited 
to  their  sex,  by  which  they  can  earn  an  honorable 
independence.     The  raising  of  fruits  and  flowers, 
the  cultivation  of  silk  and  cotton,  the  raising  and 
manufacture    of    straw,    the   superintendence    of 
dairies  and  dairy-farms,  are  all  suitable  modes  of 
earning  an  independence,  and  can  all  be  carried 
on  by  women  without  any  personal  toils  unsuited 
to  their  sex.     And  agricultural  schools   to  train 
women  to  the  science  and  practice  of  these  pro- 
fessions are  the  just  due  to  women  as  much  as  to 
men.     And   here  it   is   well   to  notice  that   our 
national  government  has  given  to  every  State  in 
the  Union  a  portion  of  the  national  lands  to  endow 
agricultural  colleges,  and  they  have  been  taken, 
and  in  most  cases  have  been  wasted,  by  speculators, 
and  in  no  instance  have  American  women  received 
any  share.     But  the  States  in  the  late  rebellion 
have  not  taken  their   portion,   and,    when   they 
receive  it,  the   Southern  women,  it  is  hoped,  will 
claim  their  proportion,  and  thus  establish  institu- 
tions to  train  women  to  earn  their  own  independ- 
ence.    If  only  a  majority  of  women,  in  such  .a 

16*  z 


410  APPENDIX  A. 

case  as  this,  and  also  in  the  case  of  detrimental 
and  unjust  laws,  would  unite  and  petition  for  re- 
dress, they  would  gain  all  they  ask,  and  by  a 
more  direct  and  suitable  method  than  by  obtaining 
the  law-making  power,  and  then  enforcing  such 
acts  of  justice. 

The  wisdom  of  the  former  course  is  indicated  by 
the  results  of  a  recent  meeting  of  New  York 
ladies.  Among  the  resolutions  adopted  at  this 
meeting  was  one  claiming  that  women  should  be 
trained  for  their  appropriate  professions  as  men 
are,  and  that  institutions  for  this  purpose  should 
be  as  liberally  endowed  as  are  the  colleges  and 
professional  schools  for  men.  This  resolution  was 
adopted  unanimously,  and  was  as  unanimously 
approved  by  the  leading  papers  of  the  city,  both 
secular  and  religious. 

It  is  an  unfortunate  feature  of  some  who,  with 
the  best  of  motives,  are  laboring  to  relieve  the 
burdens  of  their  sex,  that  they  assume  that  the 
fault  rests  with  men,  as  if  they  were  in  antagonism 
with  woman's  interests  and  rights.  But  in  all 
Christian  countries  men  are  trained  to  a  tender 
care  of  wives,  mothers,  and  sisters,  and  a  chival- 
rous impulse  to  protect  and  provide  for  helpless 
womanhood  is  often  stronger  in  men  than  in  most 
women  who  have  had  no  such  training. 

The  grand  difficulty  is  that  the  teachings  of  our 
Heavenly  Father,  as  to  the  care  of  the  feebler 
members  of  his  great  family,  have  been  imper- 


APPENDIX  A. 

fectly  realized  by  women  as  much  as  by  men,  and 
therefore  they  have  never  understood  their  rights, 
nor  claimed  the  advantages  which  are  now  seen  to 
be  their  just  due.  It  is  certain  that  all  just  and 
benevolent  men  feel  the  wrongs  and  disabilities  of 
womanhood  as  much  as  most  women  do,  and  have 
been  as  much  perplexed  in  seeking  the  most  effect- 
ive remedy. 

The  ladies'  meeting  in  New  York,  and  the  uni- 
versal approval  by  the  public  prints  of  the  resolu- 
tions adopted,  prove  that  the  most  benevolent  and 
intelligent  minds  of  both  sexes  deem  it  only  an 
act  of  justice  to  establish  institutions  for  training 
women  to  their  appropriate  professions,  which 
shall  be  as  liberally  endowed  as  those  for  the  other 
sex  ;  and  that  these  endowments  shall  support 
well-educated  women  as  liberally  as  the  professors 
of  our^colleges. 

In  pursuance  of  this  indication,  the  American 
Woman's  Educational  Association  proposes  to  com- 
mence seeking  endowments  to  establish  such  an 
institution  in  close  vicinity  to  New  York.  Each 
of  the  various  religious  denominations  is  repre- 
sented in  their  board  of  managers,  and  the  consti- 
tution forbids  a  majority  of  any  one  denomination 
as  managers.  It  is  hoped  that  the  ladies  of  New 
York  (of  all  parties  and  sects)  will  set  an  example 
of  harmonious  action  in  establishing  one  model 
institution,  which,  no  doubt,  would  be  reproduced 
all  over  our  land.  Should  this  be  done,  it  is 


412  APPENDIX  A. 

believed  that  all  the  wrongs  of  woman  would  be 
redressed,  and  that  the  ballot  for  woman,  and  its 
risks  and  responsibilities,  would  be  no  longer 
sought.  The  family  state  would  thus  rise  to  its 
high  and  honored  position,  and  woman,  as  its  chief 
minister,  would  feel  that  no  earthly  honors  or 
offices  could  compare  in  value  with  her  own. 

Then  every  woman  would  look  forward  to  a 
cheerful  home  of  her  own,  where  she  could  train 
the  children  of  her  Heavenly  Father  for  their 
eternal  home.  If  not  married,  or  if  not  blessed 
with  children,  she  could  gather  the  lost  lambs  of 
her  Lord  and  Saviour,  and  lead  them  to  the  green 
pastures  and  still  waters  of  eternal  life. 


APPENDIX   B. 

IT  will  be  noticed  by  the  reader  that  we  have, 
in  this  discussion,  said  nothing  concerning  the 
views  held  on  the  subject  of  marriage  by  some 
of  the  advocates  of  woman-suffrage ;  nor  on  the 
effect  which  would  be  inevitably  produced  on  the 
permanence  and  inviolability  of  the  marriage  tie, 
by  granting  this  privilege  to  women. 

Having  laid  down,  in  the  beginning,  the  Scrip- 
tural view  of  the  relations  of  the  two  sexes,  a 
view  which  we  conceive  to  be  vitally  important 
to  the  discussion  of  the  whole  question,  we  were 
disposed  to  leave  the  subject  of  marriage  untouch- 
ed, regarding  these  declarations  of  Scripture  suf- 
ficient to  satisfy  our  readers  of  our  position. 

But  the  avowals  of  Mr.  Mill,  in  his  recent  vol- 
ume, the  published  declarations  of  some  of  the 
leaders  of  the  woman-suffrage  movement  in  this 
country,  and  the  low  ground  on  which  all  of  them 
base  the  relation,  have  caused  us  to  reconsider  our 
determination,  and  to  say  a  few  words  on  this 
important  subject. 

Marriage  we  hold  to  be  an  ordinance  of  God,  in 
which  one  man,  in  the  presence  of  witnesses,  and 
before  his  Creator,  whom,  by  that  act,  he  calls  also 


414  APPENDIX  B. 

to  witness  his  vows,  takes  one  woman  to  be  his 
wife,  promising  to  love,  cherish,  protect,  and  honor 
her,  to  be  true  to  her,  and  to  her  only,  so  long  as 
they  both  shall  live ;  the  wife,  on  her  part,  pledging 
herself  equally  to  be  true  to  her  husband,  to  honor, 
love,  and  obey  him,  so  long  as  they  both  shall 
live.  This  is  no  mere  partnership  of  two  equals, 
to  be  dissolved  with  or  without  cause,  at  the  will 
of  either  or  both  parties.  Aside  from  death,  it 
can,  according  to  the  explicit  declaration  of  the 
Divine  founder  of  the  relation,  be  dissolved  only 
for  one  cause — the  violation  of  their  marriage  vows 
by  one  or  the  other  party.  A  separation,  but  with- 
out the  privilege  on  either  side  of  marriage  to 
another,  might  be  justified  on  the  ground  of  cru- 
elty, intemperance,  desertion,  or  complete  incom- 
patibility of  temper.  This  position,  we  believe 
to  be  maintained  by  the  Scriptures,  and  by  the 
Christian  Church  in  all  ages. 

Mr.  Mill,  on  the  contrary,  takes  the  ground  that 
marriage  is  a  mere  partnership,  professedly  for 
life,  but  capable  of  being  dissolved  at  any  time,  at 
the  will  of  the  parties  ;  though  he  dissuades  them 
from  such  dissolution,  except  for  good  and  suffi- 
cient cause.  The  corollary  which  he  draws  from 
this  position  is,  that  being  equal  partners,  there  is 
no  rightful  headship  in  one  more  than  in  the  other ; 
that,  from  the  accident  of  his  seniority,  or  his 
greater  mental  culture,  the  man  may  be  the  head  ; 
or,  the  circumstances  being  changed,  the  wife  may 


APPENDIX  B.  415 

be ;  or,  they  may  share  their  headship  together. 
To  the  objection  that  this  would  lead  to  collisions 
and  separation,  he  replies,  that  this  would  never 
occur  except  where  the  connexion  altogether  had 
been  a  mistake,  and  then  it  would  be  a  blessing 
to  both  parties  to  be  relieved  from  it. 

Some  of  the  leaders  in  the  woman-suffrage 
movement,  Mrs.  Ernestine  L.  Rose  for  one,  we 
believe,  take  even  stronger  ground  than  this. 
They  avow  that  marriage  has  not  even  the  sanc- 
tions that  belong  to  an  ordinary  partnership ;  that 
"  every  woman  has  a  right  to  choose  who  shall  be 
the  father  of  her  child ; "  "  that  true  marriage,  like 
true  religion,  dwells  in  the  sanctuary  of  the  soul, 
beyond  the  cognizance  or  sanction  of  State  or 
Church ;"  and  scoff  generally  at  the  idea  of  any 
permanence  or  sanctity  in  the  marriage  tie. 

We  do  not  believe  that  Mrs.  Stanton,  Miss 
Anthony,  Mrs.  Davis,  or  several  of  the  other 
prominent  women  of  the  suffrage  movement,  are 
prepared  to  sanction  all  these  extravagant  and 
disorganizing  sentiments ;  though  we  have  never 
been  able  to  learn  that  any  of  them  have  publicly 
repudiated  them  ;  but  there  is  a  looseness  of  view 
on  this  important  subject,  inherent  in  the  move- 
ment itself. 

Miss  Dodge  (Gail  Hamilton),  in  one  of  the 
most  eloquent  passages  in  her  "  Woman's 
Wrongs,"  treads  on  very  dangerous  ground  on 
this  subject;  and,  though  she  would  probably 


416  APPENDIX  B. 

scout  the  idea  of  being  the  advocate  of  divorce 
and  the  opponent  of  legal  marriage,  her  language 
bears  on  its  face  that  interpretation.  Hear  her  : — • 
"  Wherever  man  pays  reverence  to  woman, 
— wherever  any  man  feels  the  influence  of  any 
woman,  purifying,  chastening,  abashing,  strength- 
ening him  against  temptation,  shielding  him  from 
evil,  ministering  to  his  self-respect,  medicining  his 
weariness,  peopling  his  solitude,  winning  him  from 
sordid  prizes,  enlivening  his  monotonous  days  with 
mirth,  or  fancy,  or  wit,  flashing  heaven  upon  his 
earth,  and  mellowing  it  for  all  spiritual  fertility, — 
there  is  the  element  of  marriage.  Wherever  wo- 
man pays  reverence  to  man — wherever  any  woman 
rejoices  in  the  strength  of  any  man,  feels  it  to  be 
God's  agent,  upholding  her  weakness,  confirming 
her  purpose,  and  crowning  her  power, — wherever 
he  reveals  himself  to  her,  just,  upright,  inflexible, 
yet  tolerant,  merciful,  benignant,  not  unruffled, 
perhaps,  but  not  overcome  by  the  world's  turbu- 
lence, and  responding  to  all  her  gentleness,  his  feet 
on  the  earth,  his  head  among  the  stars,  helping  her 
to  hold  her'  soul  steadfast  in  right,  to  stand  firm 
against  the  encroachments  of  frivolity,  vanity, 
impatience,  fatigue,  and  discouragement,  helping 
to  preserve  her  good  nature,  to  develop  her  ener- 
gy, to  consolidate  her  thought,  to  utilize  her  benev- 
olence, to  exalt  and  illumine  her  life, — there  is 
the  essence  of  marriage.  Its  love  is  founded  on 
respect,  and  increases  self-respect  at  the  very 


APPENDIX  B. 

moment  of  merging  self  in  another.  Its  love  is 
mutual — equally  giving  and  receiving  at  every 
instant  of  its  action.  There  is  neither  depend- 
ence nor  independence,  but"  interdependence. 
Years  can  not  weaken  its  bonds;  distance  cannot 
sunder  them.  It  is  a  love  which  vanquishes  the 
grave,  and  transfigures  death  itself  into  life." 

Now  this  is  a  very  beautiful,  and,  barring  a  little 
of  the  rhapsody,  a  very  true  description  of  that 
union  of  hearts  which  constitutes  a  perfect  mar- 
riage. Such  unions  there  are,  thank  God,  and 
they  constitute  the  bright  spots  on  earth's  dark- 
ness ;  but,  if  Miss  Dodge  supposes  that  no  mar- 
riage can  be  other  than  an  adulterous  one,  which 
does  not  contain  all  these  elements,  she  sadly  mis- 
takes God's  ordinance  and  the  spirit  and*  tenor  of 
both  the  gospel  and  history.  How  many  cases 
are  there,  where  the  affection,  reverence,  and  con- 
fidence of  the  two  parties,  at  marriage,  fall  far  short 
of  this,  and  yet,  subsequently,  develop  into  a  near 
approach  to  it  ?  Are  these  no  true  marriages  ? 
Again,  how  many  instances  do  we  all  know,  where 
the  parties,  through  all  their  lives  long,  coming 
far  below  this  very  exalted  standard,  yet  lead 
peaceful  and  well-ordered  lives,  and  enjoy  such 
harmony  and  satisfaction  in  each  other's  society 
as  is  possible  in  temperaments  not  ardent,  and  in 
intellects^  not  of  the  highest  grade.  Must  we 
strike  out  these  from  the  list  of  true  marriages  ? 
Yet  further,  there  are  those  who  have  infirmities 


418  APPENDIX  B. 

of  temper,  which  lead  to  not  infrequent  collisions, 
but  yet  entertain  a  strong  affection  for  each  other, 
and,  in  the  intervals  of  these  ebullitions,  are  loving 
and  tender.  Are  these  adulterous  mismatches  ?  It 
would  be  a  blessed  world,  indeed,  if  all  the  mar- 
ried came  up  to  Miss  Dodge's  noble  ideal,  and 
perhaps  at  the  millennium  they  may ;  but  mean- 
time, it  is  a  naughty  world,  and  we  fear  that,  for 
every  one  of  these  instances  of  perfect  connubial 
bliss,  there  are  to  be  found  not  less  than  fifty,  and 
perhaps  a  hundred,  which  make  no  near  approach 
to  it.  Yet,  believing  as  we  do  in  the  upward  pro- 
gress of  the  race  and  its  capacity  for  improvement, 
we  should  be  slow  to  declare  all  marriages  except 
these  few,  violations  of  the  true  idea  of  marriage, 
until  we  fiad  ascertained  whether  it  was  not  pos- 
sible for  those  who  now  occupy  a  low  plane  to  come 
up  higher. 

But  Miss  Dodge  goes  on  to  say  :  "  The  current 
of  human  progress  is  undoubtedly — perhaps  has 
always  been — setting  in  this  direction.  Its  motion 
is  slow,  sometimes  apparently  backward,  but 
never  permanently  checked.  Every  legal  enact- 
ment that  tends  to  equalize  the  sexes,  to  give 
husband  and  wife  the  same  position  before  the 
law,  smooths  the  way  for  the  desired  end.  Every 
elevated  friendship  between  a  man  and  a  woman 
prefigures  it.  All  the  subjugations  of  the, marriage 
rite  and  of  common  law  are  against  it.  Every  thing 
which  coerces  that  whose  only  value  lies  in  its 


APPENDIX  B.  419 

freedom  is  an  obstruction.  So  long  as  the  law 
commands  subordination,  it  forbids  the  grace  of  a 
spontaneous  deference.  Man  never  will  be  truly 
monarch,  till  woman  of  her  own  will  places  the 
crown  on  his  brow ;  and  that  she  will  never  do 
till  her  will  is  free.  Each  being  in  a  false  relation 
to  the  other,  there  will  be  constant  antagonism 
where  there  ought  to  be  unbroken  harmony.  They 
will  hinder  and  irritate  where  they  ought  to  help 
and  soothe.  Man  may  have  mastery  by  strength 
of  thew  and  sinew ;  but  he  masters  only  thew  and 
sinew.  The  fine  spirit  escapes  him.  The  subtile 
soul,  bruised,  outraged,  deformed,  but  defiant, 
mocks  him  from  afar. 

"  So  long  as  the  tendencies  of  growth,  however 
feeble  and  awry,  are  to  fill  out  the  empty  shell  of 
marriage  with  true  spiritual  richness,  we  may  hold 
our  peace.  But  when  our  preachers  and  teachers 
come  to  us  and  set  down  this  empty  shell  square 
in  the  path  of  progress,  and  say,  '  This  is  all — all 
that  has  been,  all  that  shall  be,  all  that  God 
intended  ever  should  be,'  the  stones  may  cry  out 
upon  them.  It  is  the  very  priests  thrusting  God 
from  his  most  holy  temple.  It  is  the  ministers  of 
that  Gospel  which  emancipates  woman  from  cen- 
turies of  servility,  remanding  her  to  her  burdens. 
Christ  made  no  distinction,  but  opened  the  door 
wide  to  woman  as  to  man.  These  restrict  her  to 
a  single  form  of  service,  while  oppressing  her 
with  a  thousand  forms  of  servitude.  They  sub- 


APPENDIX  B. 

ordinate  her  best  uses  to  her  lowest  functions. 
They  degrade  her  into  a  hewer  of  wood  and  a 
drawer  of  water,  and  add  blasphemy  to  falsehood 
with  a  '  Thus  saith  the  Lord.' " 

Miss  Dodge  is  too  sensible  and  clear-headed  a 
woman,  we  are  persuaded,  to  advocate  the  abolition 
of  the  marriage  rite  and  of  all  laws  intended  to 
regulate  marriage ;  and  yet  to  many  her  words  in 
this  extract  will  seem  to  have  this  signification, 
and  this  alone.  She  has  been  imprudent  in  her 
use  of  language  on  this  subject  before,  and  has 
incurred  odium  which  we  do  not  believe  she  fully 
deserves  thereby. 

But  the  fundamental  difficulty  with  Miss  Dodge 
is  that,  though  recognizing,  she  fails  to  comprehend 
the  reality  of  woman's  complementary  nature,  and 
harps  on  the  equality  of  the  sexes,  when  she 
really  knows,  if  she  would  but  consider,  that  there 
is  no  perfect  equality  between  them. 

That  many  rush  into  marriage  with  no  thought 
of  its  real  character,  and  no  knowledge  of  their 
adaptation  to  those  to  whom  they  are  wedded,  in 
temper,  tastes,  affection,  or  intellectual  capacities, 
is  too  true ;  and  very  often  they  find,  too  late, 
that  they  are  grievously  mismated ;  but  the 
remedy  for  this  great  evil  is  not,  as  these  advo- 
cates of  the  equality  of  the  sexes  assert,  in  the 
abrogation  of  all  marriage  rites,  and  the  leaving 
both  sexes  perfectly  free  to  choose,  by  some  occult 
law  of  affinity,  how  they  will  be  mated.  The 


APPENDIX  B.  421 

perfect  union  which  Miss  Dodge  so  glowingly 
describes  will  not  come  in  this  way.  Opinions 
will  be  as  discordant,  hasty  and  ill-considered 
matches  will  be  as  common,  and  quarrels  as 
frequent,  if  women  propose  for  husbands,  as 
they  are  now,  when  men  propose  and  women 
accept  or  reject.  It  is  all  very  well  to  talk  of 
woman's  being  free,  and  of  her  own  will  placing 
the  nuptial  crown  on  man's  brow ;  but  woman,  in 
all  the  past,  has  been  disposed  to  robe  the  man  of 
her  choice  in  ideal  perfections,  and  very  often, 
when  she  believed  him  a  demigod,  he  has  turned 
out  to  be  only  a  creature  of  clay,  and  very  poor 
clay  at  that.  Will  she  be  any  wiser,  or  judge 
character  any  better  in  the  future  than  in  the 
past  ?  We  hope  so,  but  we  doubt.  Let  us  now 
listen  to  another  woman,  the  peer  of  Miss  Dodge 
in  learning  and  in  intellectual  grasp,  and  her 
superior  in  her  mastery  of  the  higher  problems  of 
political  economy  and  ethics,  as  she  gives  her 
views  on  this  question  of  the  equality  of  the 
sexes. 

The  gifted  author  of  "  Woman's  Rights  and 
Duties "  thus  discourses  on  the  subject  :*  "  The 
power  of  the  strong  over  the  weak  is  so  immov- 
ably fixed  in  the  nature  of  things,  that  any  attempt 
to  improve  the  condition  of  women,  if  not  founded 
on  the  assumption  that  men  must  hold  the  chief 
rule  in  society,  will  carry  the  seeds  of  failure  in. 

*  YoL  i.  p.  208,  et  seq. 


422  APPENDIX   B. 

its  bosom.  Every  fanciful  attempt  to  place  the 
two  sexes  on  a  perfect  equality,  has  ended  with- 
out the  slightest  benefit  to  women.  When  we 
view  the  wide  regions  of  uncivilized  life,  the  first 
thing  that  strikes  us  is  the  corruption  to  both 
sides,  which  results  from  this  natural  deficiency  on 
the  part  of  the  female  sex.  We  can  not  but  con- 
trast the  spirit  of  tyranny  it  generates  in  the  one 
party  and  the  servility  in  the  other,  with  the 
humanizing  influence  of  those  bonds  of  relation- 
ship or  friendship,  which  are  cemented  by  a  mutu- 
al sense  of  equality.  The  same  individual  who  is 
a  devoted  and  generous  friend,  has  sometimes 
proved  a  brutal  oppressor  to  his  wife ;  nor  is  it 
surprising  :  for  in  the  rude  mind,  services  received 
as  duties  generate  contempt — as  free  kindness,  they 
generate  love  and  fidelity.  But  we  may  be  assur- 
ed there  is  no  natural  law  without  some  beneficial 
uses.  Man  was  designed  for  civilization,  and 
though,  in  uncivilized  life,  the  weakness  of  woman 
is  found  to  be  almost  invariably  productive  of 
misery,  the  effect,  when  reason  begins  to  prevail 
over  barbarism,  may  perhaps  appear  very  differ- 
ent. There  can  be  no  civilization  without  order, 
and  the  progress  of  order  could  scarcely  be  secur- 
ed without  some  provision  that  should  lead  man- 
kind, promptly  and  universally,  to  a  division  of 
labor  and  duties  into  the  public  and  private. 

"  The    utmost    confusion    and    embarrassment 
would  arise,  if  it  were  quite  uncertain  which  of  the 


APPENDIX  B.  423 

two  heads  of  a  family  should  attend  to  the  details 
of  the  household,  and  which  pursue  the  profession 
or  duties  that  were  to  provide  for  their  common 
support.  On  what  principles  should  education  be 
conducted  ?  It  can  not  be  said  that  rearing  the 
young  would  naturally  confine  the  female  to  the 
domestic  duties  ;  we  see  that  in  savage  life  it  does 
not  do  so.  She  is  compelled  to  labor  much  harder 
in  proportion  to  her  strength  than  the  other  sex ; 
she  is  exempted  from  nothing  that  her  strength 
can  perform.  In  civilized  life  it  can  not  be  sup- 
posed that  man  would  labor  for  her  if  she  was 
just  as  strong  and  able,  as  bold  and  as  daring  as 
himself;  all  the  feminine  virtues  would  cease  to 
exist,  or  be  even  imagined,  and  the  whole  race  be 
so  much  the  harder  and  coarser.  The  confusion 
would  be  so  great  from  the  uncertainty  which  of 
the  two  parties  should  abandon  their  professional 
duties,  to  attend  to  the  details  of  domestic  life, 
that,  I  think,  such  an  awkward  condition  of  society 
would  compel  the  institution  of  castes,  that  a  cer- 
tain portion  of  the  community  might  be  brought 
up  to  particular  sorts  of  employment  alone.  Let 
any  one  but  follow  out  in  imagination  the  details 
of  a  condition  in  which  all  the  professions  and 
employments  of  civil  life  were  given  indifferently 
to  men  or  women,  as  their  physical  strength  might 
permit.  The  picture  could  scarcely  be  drawn  out 
with  seriousness,  but  the  embarrassments  would 
not  be  the  less  real  because  the  notion  is  ludi- 


424  APPENDIX    B. 

crous.  All  inconvenience  is  avoided  by  a  slight 
inferiority  of  strength  and  abilities  in  one  of  the 
sexes.  This  gradually  develops  a  particular  turn 
of  character,  a  new  class  of  affections  and  senti- 
ments that  humanize  and  embellish  the  species 
more  than  any  others.  These  lead  at  once,  without 
art  or  hesitation,  to  a  division  of  duties  needed 
alike  in  all  situations,  and  produce  that  order 
without  which  there  can  be  no  social  progres- 
sion. 

"  In  the  treatise  of  '  The  Hand,'  by  Sir  Charles 
Bell,  we  learn  that  the  left  hand  and  foot  are 
naturally  a  little  weaker  than  the  right;  the  effect 
of  this  is,  to  make  us  more  prompt  and  dexterous 
than  we  should  otherwise  be.  If  there  were  no 
difference  at  all  between  the  right  and  left  limbs, 
the  slight  degree  of  hesitation  which  hand  to  use, 
or  which  foot  to  put  forward,  would  create  an 
awkwardness  that  would  operate  more  or  less 
every  moment  of  our  lives,  and  the  provision  to 
prevent  it,  seems  analogous  to  the  difference 
nature  has  made  between  the  strength  of  the 
sexes. 

"  Nature,  then,  having  placed  the  stronger  mind 
where  she  gave  the  stronger  body,  and  accompan- 
ied it  with  a  more  enterprising,  ambitious  spirit, 
the  custom  that  consigns  to  the  male  sex  the  chief 
command  in  society,  and  all  the  offices  which 
require  the  greatest  strength  and  ability,  has  a 
better  foundation  than  force,  or  the  prejudices 


APPENDIX    B.  425 

that  result  from  it.  The  hard,  laborious,  stern, 
and  coarse  duties  of  the  warrior,  lawyer,  legislator 
or  physician,  require  all  tender  emotions  to  be 
frequently  repressed.  The  firmest  texture  of 
nerve  is  required  to  stand  the  severity  of  mental 
labor,  and  the  greatest  abilities  are  wanted  where 
the  duties  of  society  are  most  difficult.  It  would  - 
be  as  little  in  agreement  with  the  nature  of  things 
to  see  the  exclusive  possession  of  these  taken 
from  the  abler  sex,  to  be  divided  with  the  weaker? 
as  it  is  in  the  savage  condition,  to  behold  severe 
bodily  toil  inflicted  on  the  feeble  frame  of  the 
woman,  and  the  softness  of  feeling  which  nature 
has  provided  her  with  for  the  tenderest  of  her 
offices,  that  of  nurturing  the  young,  outraged  by 
contempt,  menaces,  and  blows. 

"  It  is,  therefore,  an  impartial  decree  which 
consigns  all  the  offices  that  require  the  greatest 
ability  to  men.  For,  is  it  .less  the  interest  of 
woman  than  of  man,  that  property,  life,  and 
liberty  should  be  secured — that  aggression  should 
be  quickly  and  easily  repressed — that  content- 
ment and  order  should  prevail  instead  of  tumult  ? 
—that  industry  should  be  well  paid — provisions 
cheap  and  plentiful — that  trade  should  cover  their 
tables  and  their  persons  with  the  comforts,  con- 
veniences, and  luxuries  which  habit  has  rendered 
necessary,  or  an  innocent  sensibility  pleasurable  ? 
Is  it  less  momentous  to  them  that  religious 
opinions  should  be  free  from  persecution — that  a 

IT  AA 


426  APPENDIX    B. 

wise  foreign  policy  should  maintain  these  bless- 
ings in  peace,  and  preserve  us  from  the  tribula- 
tion of  foreign  dominion?  In  objects  of  less 
selfish  interest,  are  women  less  anxious  than 
m.en,  or  more  so,  to  see  the  practice  of  slavery 
expelled  from  the  face  of  the  earth  ?  or  our  colo- 
nial government  redeemed,  in  every  remaining 
instance,  from  the  stain  that  has  too  often  attended 
it,  of  being  numbered  with  the  most  oppressive 
of  European  ?  In  the  dangerous  and  difficult 
sciences  of  medicine  and  surgery,  is  it  less  import- 
ant to  women  than  to  men  that  the  life  which 
hangs  by  a  thread  should  be  trusted  to  those 
whose  nerves  and  ability  insure  the  greatest 
skill  ?  Or  in  law,  that  the  decision  of  rights,  the 
vindication  of  innocence,  should  be  in  the  hands 
of  those  who  can  most  patiently  endure  the  driest 
studies  and  most  boldly  follow  human  nature 
through  all  its  various  forms  and  all  its  foul 
pursuits  ?  Ills  enough,  Heaven  knows,  ensue  from, 
the  weaknesses  and  incapacity  of  men,  but  to  con- 
fer the  offices,  which  demand  all  the  skill  and  energy 
that  can  be  had,  on  those  who  are  weaker  still, 
would  be  injurious  alike  to  both.  The  commanding 
and  influential  stations  in  society  belong,  therefore, 
naturally  and  properly  to  the  male  sex ;  this,  of 
necessity,  entails  the  chief  rule  in  private  life  also. 
But  it  is  here  that  the  rights  of  women  come  in, 
and  that  the  danger  of  unjust  encroachment  upon 
them  commences.  Every  thing  that  tends  to 


APPENDIX   B.  427 

lessen  the  comparative  purity  and  refinement  of 
women  is  most  pointedly  adverse  to  their  real 
interests  ;  these  are  the  qualities  that  enable  them 
to  be  the  guardians  and  sustainers  of  national 
morals  ;  and  their  rights  must  be  founded  on  their 
natural  attributes  and  their  moral  dignity.  To 
these  respect  and  consideration  can  not  be  denied, 
and  every  step  mankind  advances  in  civilization 
gives  strength  to  those  sentiments.  Women  have 
neither  the  physical  strength  nor  the  mental  power 
to  compete  with  men  in  the  departments  which 
depend  on  those  qualifications  ;  and  however  little 
we  were  to  suppose  their  inferiority,  in  the  long 
run  they  would  always  be  defeated  and  discredit- 
ed in  their  competition  for  employment  with  the 
abler  sex.  Were  so  unnatural  a  state  of  society 
to  arise,  as  that  they  should  become  the  competi- 
tors instead  of  the  assistants  of  man,  they  would 
lose  their  hold  on  his  protection  and  tenderness, 
without  being  able  to  shield  themselves  from  his 
harshness.  The  business  of  life  would  be  far 
worse  conducted,  when  the  division  of  labor  so 
clearly  pointed  out  by  nature  was  done  away ;  and 
the  just  influence  which  women  ought  to  have 
would  be  destroyed  by  breaking  down  the  barrier 
of  opinion  which  consigns  them  to  the  duties  of  a 
domestic  and  private  station,  and  preserves  them 
from  the  contamination  of  gross  and  contentious 
scenes. 

"  But  the  same  arguments  that  establish  the  right 


428  APPENDIX    B. 

of  the  male  sex,  to  the  sole  possession  of  public 
authority,  must  leave  the  chief  control  of  domes- 
tic life  in  their  hands  also.  All  the  most  laborious, 
the  greater  and  more  lucrative  social  offices,  being 
filled  by  them,  it  follows  that,  generally  speaking, 
it  is  they  who  produce  the  wealth  and  property 
of  society,  and  the  property  they  create  they  have 
assuredly  the  best  right  to  control ;  within  the 
rules  of  virtue  and  law,  they  may  spend  it  as 
they  will.  The  children  whom  the  husband  sup- 
ports, the  wife  who  accepts  him,  engaging  to  fol- 
low his  fortunes,  must  be  content  to  live  as  he 
pleases,  or  as  his  business  requires.  This  is  the 
law  of  nature  and  reason.  If  his  tastes  or  his 
profession  be  unpleasant  to  her,  she  must  see  to  it 
beforehand ;  for  ever  after  their  interests  must  be 
one.  In  every  important  decision  that  is  taken, 
one  counsel  must  prevail ;  if  it  can. not  be  mutual, 
it  must  be  assigned  as  a  legal  right  to  the  owner 
of  the  property  and  the  abler  sex.  Hence  he  is 
the  head  of  the  family ;  he  must  be  responsible 
to  law  and  opinion  for  the  decorum  of  his  house, 
and  must  have  the  power  of  restraining  what  he 
holds  to  be  discreditable  or  wrong.  Happy  if  he 
could  be  made  equally  responsible,  even  to  his  own 
conscience,  for  unjustly  encroaching  on  rights 
which  should  never  be  taken  from  a  woman,  ex- 
cept for  positive  vice  or  incapacity  !  Her  right  to 
all  the  self-government  that  can  be  left  to  her,  with- 
out deranging  his  purposes  or  his  enjoyment,  is  as 


APPENDIX  B.  429 

real  as  his  own ;  and  his  purposes  and  enjoyments 
are  not  to  be  measured  by  mere  pride  or  fancy, 
but  by  reason  and  justice  ;  even  then  he  remains 
judge  in  his  own  cause.  As  the  right  of  man  to 
the  chief  power,  public  and  domestic,  has  been 
deduced  from  his  greater  ability,  so  the  aptitude 
of  the  female  mind  and  character  for  the  details  of 
domestic  life,  and  the  improvement  of  society,  in 
manners  and  morals,  establish  her  rights,  also,  to 
a  share  of  control ;  otherwise,  her  utility  must  be 
greatly  impaired,  and  her  enjoyment  cruelly  and 
needlessly  sacrificed." 


APPENDIX   C. 

JUST  as  the  last  sheets  of  this  work  were  pass- 
ing through  the  press,  two  volumes  of  essays  were 
published  in  England,  treating  on  many  of  the  same 
topics  which  are  here  considered,  though  neces- 
sarily from  the  English  point  of  view.  One  of 
these,  "  Woman's  Work  and  Woman's  Culture,"  is 
a  large  octavo  volume,  and,  besides  the  introduc- 
tory essay  by  the  editor,  Mrs.  Josephine  E.  Butler, 
has  very  able  papers  by  Frances  Power  C'obbe, 
Jessie  Boucherett,  Rev.  G.  Butler,  Principal  of 
the  Liverpool  College,  Sophia  Jex-Blake,  James 
Stuart,  Charles  H.  Pearson,  Herbert  N.  Mozley, 
Esq.,  Julia  Wedgwood,  Elizabeth  C.  Wolstenholme, 
and  John  Boyd-Kinnear.  The  various  aspects  of 
what  is  so  generally  called  "  The  Woman  Ques- 
tion," so  far  as  English  women  and  English 
society  are  concerned,  are  treated  with  remarkable 
ability  and  moderation,  and  the  work  is  one  which 
ought  to  be  widely  read.  The  other  volume, 
"  Ourselves,"  is  a  series  of  spicy,  lively  essays,  by 
Mrs.  E.  Lynn  Linton,  exceedingly  readable,  and 
portraying  the  good  and  evil  that  is  in  woman  as 
only  one  of  themselves  could  do  it.  It  will,  we 
doubt  not,  do  good. 


APPENDIX    0.  431 

The  essay,  in  the  first  volume  named,  on  the 
"  Social  Position  of  Women,"  by  John  Boyd-Kin- 
near,  is  so  remarkable  for  its  forcible  presentation 
of  facts,  and  corroborates  so  fully  the  positions  we 
have  already  taken  in  this  work,  that  we  feel  that 
our  readers  will  enjoy  a  few  passages  of  it,  but  we 
must  beg  leave  to  say,  in  advance  of  our  presenta- 
tion of  them,  so  striking  is  at  times  the  resem- 
blance of  the  thoughts,  that  we  had  no  knowledge 
of  Mr.  Kinnear's  views,  or  of  his  essay,  when  our 
chapters  on  these  topics  were  written,  and,  of 
course,  he  could  have  no  possible  knowledge  of 
ours. — L.  P.  B. 

.  .  .  .  "  The  most  prevalent  understanding  at 
present,  undoubtedly  is,  that  women  should  do 
as  little  as  possible  of  any  active,  any  outside 
work.  Let  them  become  wives  and  mothers,  it  is 
said — these  are  their  natural  functions  ;  and  let 
them  leave  the  business  of  the  world  to  men.  We 
concede  grudgingly,  and  under  a  sort  of  protest, 
that  they  may  do  a  little  charity,  visit  some  select 
ed  poor,  decorate  churches,  and  teach  under  the 
clergymen  in  Sunday-schools.  All  beyond  that 
is  thought  exceptional,  if  not  odd. 

"  And  yet  it  ought  to  startle  us  into  doubt  of 
the  soundness  of  our  notions,  when  we  find,  ever 
and  anon,  how  infinitely  obliged  we  are  to  women 
when  they  dare  to  be  even  more  than  odd.  The 
country  was  more  grateful  than  it  has  been  to  any 
man  since  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  when  Miss 


432  APPE    D  x  o. 

Nightingale  took  the  extraordinary  step  of  going 
out  to  Scutari,  and  bringing  order  and  decency 
into  the  chaos  of  neglect  that  had  grown  up  around 
medical  men  and  staff- officers.  On  a  more  limited 
scale,  there  is  many  a  parish  that  owes  the  deep- 
est thankfulness  to  some  good  woman  who  has 
quietly  organized  its  schools,  or  broken  down  the 
cruel  routine  of  its  workhouse.  If  it  is  well  when 
these  things  are  done,  can  we  deprecate  their  being 
done  more  o£ten ;  and  still  insist  that  women  are 
•out  of  their  sphere  when  employed  in  other  duties 
than  ( suckling  fools  and  chronicling  small-beer  ?' 
It  is  probably  the  case  that  modern  social  changes 
have  indirectly  operated  to  lower  the  public  idea 
as  to  the  duties  of  women,  just  as  they  have  oust- 
ed women  from  some  of  the  employments  that 
were  formerly  appropriated  to  them.  In  the  feu- 
dal times,  woman,  factitiously  elevated  by  the 
notions  of  chivalry,  and  so  often  called  on  to  play 
the  part  of  men  when  left  as  chatelaine  of  the 
castle  in  their  husband's  absence,  or  head  of  the 
family  of  the  yeoman,  who  had  to  follow  his  lord 
to  the  field,  could  hardly  at  any  time  sink  back 
into  the  mere  household  ornament  or  drudge.  In 
every  rank  women  had  their  prescribed  duties, 
and  these  were  so  large,  that  unmarried  girls  were 
often  attached  to  a  lady's  little  court,  that  from 
her  they  might  learn,  and,  under  her,  practice  the 
proper  accomplishments  of  a  gentlewoman.  But 
girls  had  another  resource.  The  convent  opened 


APPENDIX   C.  433 

its  gates  to  rich  and  poor.  In  these  communities, 
whoever  could  not  marry,  and  whoever  did  not 
choose  to  marry,  was  sure  of  an  honored  and 
secure  asjdum.  There  they  were  at  least  not  idle. 
Beside  the  regular  offices  of  religion,  there  was 
the  management  of  property,  the  acts  of  charity, 
the  learning  and  the  teaching  of  the  literature  of 
the  time.  If  we  think  copying  manuscripts,  illu- 
minating borders,  or  working  tapestry,  not  very 
profound  studies,  or  interesting  amusements,  yet 
surely  they  were  far  less  vapid  than  the  chief 
avocations  of  modern  young  ladies.  But,  above 
all,  they  were  at  least  an  alternative  to  matrimony. 
While  such  refuges  existed,  no  girl  could  be  forced 
into  a  reluctant  marriage,  either  by  compulsion 
of  parents,  or  because,  on  the  death  of  parents, 
there  would  be  no  home  for  her  to  live  in.  I  am 
far  indeed  from  desiring  the  restoration  of  the 
conventual  system,  with  its  vows  of  perpetual  celi- 
bacy and  servitude  ;  but  it  is  right  to  remember 
that,  with  many  evils,  it  brought  at  least  some 
compensations.  To  be  unmarried  was  then  to  be 
the  spouse  of  Christ,  the  revered  l  mother/  the 
member  of  a  sisterhood  surrounded  with  all  the 
honor  and  sanctity  of  the  Church ;  nowadays,  it 
is  to  live  and  die  in  the  dreary  lodgings,  and 
under  the  half-contemptuous  title  of  an  old  maid. 
"  Thus  it  has  come  to  pass  that  women  have,  by 
change  to  times  of  settled  peace,  and  by  the 
reformation  of  religion,  lost  something  of  dignity, 

17* 


434  APPENDIX    C. 

of  usefulness,  and  of  resources.  And,  thus  it  has 
been  brought  about  that,  having  scarce  any  choice 
but  marriage,  marriage  has  come  to  be  considered 
as  the  sole  function  to  which  it  is  right  or  decent 
they  should  look.  This  notion  is  heightened 
among,  at  least,  the  upper  classes,  by  the  ideas 
which  the  law  of  primogeniture  fosters.  It  is 
thought  a  father's  duty  to  provide  largely  for  the 
eldest  son;  consequently,  the  daughter's  portion 
must  be  pinched.  Many  are  left  enough  to  live 
on,  but  not  enough  to  enable  them  still  to  move 
in  the  society  in  which  they  have  been  brought 
up.  Their  choice  lies,  then,  only  between  mar- 
rying money,  or  abandoning  all  their  connections, 
habits,  and  amusements.  Foreseeing  such  a  time, 
a  wealthy  marriage  becomes  a  matter  to  which 
they,  and  their  mothers  for  them,  eagerly  look  for- 
ward. The  more  luxury  increases,  the  more 
urgent  seems  the  necessity  for  their  securing  a 
luxurious  provision.  Unluckily,  at  the  same  time, 
and  from  the  same  causes,  there  grows  up  an  in- 
creased disinclination  among  young  men  to  enter 
into  marriage.  Then,  the  efforts  of  the  young 
ladies  become  more  desperate,  and  being  more 
apparent,  of  course,  still  less  and  less  successful. 
So  matters  go  on  from  bad  to  worse.  It  is  esteem- 
ed a  discredit  to  pass  the  second  season,  after  they 
come  out,  without  securing  an  engagement.  Rich 
young  men  become  so  valuable  a  prize,  that  selec- 
tion is  renounced,  and  even  barefaced  vice  is  no 


APPENDIX    C.  435 

disqualification  to  their  being  well  received  in 
wealthy  drawing-rooms.  The  young  men  feel  and 
improve  all  the  privileges  of  their  position ;  they 
are  careless  of  hiding  what  is  no  longer  reprobated, 
and  they  begin  unreservedly  to  speak  of,  and  to 
be  seen  talking  to,  the  notorious  harlots  of  the 
day.  Young  ladies,  seeing  that  the  harlots  are 
run  after  and  themselves  neglected,  begin  (God 
knows  it  may  often  be  with  innocent  ignorance) 
to  ape  the  style,  and  in  some  degree,  the  manners, 
of  the  attractive  harlot.  It  is  now  the  harlots 
that  set  the  fashion  in  dress  ;  that  prescribe  the 
fashionable  drives  in  the  park ;  and  that  still, 
because  in  some  things  modest  women  can  not 
vie  with  them,  form  the  attraction  that  daily  car- 
ries young  men  more  and  more  away  from  the  soci- 
ety of  modest  women.  But  still  the  fatal  emula- 
tion is  kept  up.  Whoever  wants  to  judge  of  its 
character,  has  only  to  frequent  the  fashionable 
London  drive  at  the  fashionable  hour,  and  there  he 
Avill  see  the  richest  and  most  shameful  woman- 
market  in  the  world.  Men  stand  by  the  rails,  crit- 
icizing with  perfect  impartiality  and  equal  free- 
dom, while  women  drive  slowly  past,  some  for 
hire,  some  for  sale — in  marriage  ;  these  last  with 
their  careful  mothers  at  their  side,  to  reckon  the 
value  of  the  biddings,  and  prevent  the  lots  from 
going  off*  below  the  reserved  price.* 

*  Horrible  as  is  the  picture  which  Mr.  Boyd-Kinnear  has  here  drawn 
of  the  mercenary  spirit  of  British  mothers  of  the  upper  classes,  and  of 


436  APPENDIX    C. 

"  Such  is  the  pitch  to  which  we  have  arrived 
by  telling  women  that  marriage  is  their  sole  duty. 

the  readiness  of  young  ladies  of  high  rank  to  imitate  the  manners,  the 
dress,  and  the  shameless  conduct  of  the  demi-monde,  in  the  hope  of  there- 
by winning  husbands,  there  is  the  most  abundant  evidence  that  it  is  not 
exaggerated.  Mrs.  Linton,  in  her  volume  of  essays — '•  Ourselves  " — 
thus  testifies  to  the  prevalent  tendencies  of  these  "  girls  of  the  period," 
as  a  writer  in  the  Saturday  Review  had  previously  done : — 

"These  characters  are  no  mere  fictions  of  the  Saturday  journalist's 
brain.  They  exist,  and  they  make  their  existence  a  loud  and  staring 
fact.  In  the  Park,  the  streets,  the  drawing-room,  you  see  their  painted 
cheeks,  their  dyed  red  hair,  and  liberaJ  expanse  of  bust  and  back,  and 
you  hear  their  spicy  talk,  well  seasoned  with  slang,  and  always  hovering 
about  that  doubtful  line  of  topics  at  which  bold  men  laugh  and  modest 
women  blush.  We  may  wince  as  much  as  we  like,  and  flounce  and  flut- 
ter, and  deny,  but  the  fact  remains  the  same.  Here,  in  the  very  heart 
of  what  is  called  good  society — here,  as  the  companions  of  our  daughters, 
the  wives  of  our  brothers,  the  playfellows  of  our  sons,  and  the  friends 
of  our  husbands,  is  a  sect  of  women,  young  and  mature  alike,  who  have 
taken  the  hetairce  of  the  day  for  their  models,  and  who  paint,  and  dress, 
and  talk,  and  make  up  their  lives  as  near  after  the  patterns  set  by  their 
prototypes  as  is  possible  to  them.  How  can  we  deny  it,  when  we  see 
the  archpriestess  of  the  sect"  living  in  that  wealthy  temple  of  hers,  in 
Bond  Street,  whence  every  now  and  then  some  deluded  votary,  more 
indignant  than  wise,  turns  round  against  her  cyprian- abbess,  and 
denounces  and  exposes?  The  guilt,  and  the  shame  of  such  things, 
do  not  lie  with  those  who  speak  of  them,  but  with  those  who  do  them ; 
not  with  the  writers  of  those  slashing  articles  in  our  weekly  censor,  but 
with  the  models  who  stand  in  the  way  to  be  slashed.  For  my  own  part, 
I  only  hope  there  will  be  no  holding  of  the  hand  yet  awhile,  and  that  so 
long  as  these  sins  exist  among  us,  there  will  be  found  faithful  friends  to 
use  the  knife  and  the  actual ^cautery,  and  so  to  cut  out  and  to  burn 
unsparingly,  while  one  corrupted  fiber  remains." 

Elsewhere.  Mrs.  Linton  says:  "I,  who  am  a  matron  myself,  with 
pleasant,  brown-haired  girls,  as  yet  innocent  of  aqua  amarilla  and 
Madame  Rachel,  I  solemnly  swear  that  I  would  rather  see  my  daugh- 
ters dead  now  in  their  youth  and  beauty,  than  iu  the  way  to  become 
girls  of  the  period,  and  frisky  matrons  to  follow." 

The  fashionable  women  of  America  have  sins  and  follies  enough  to 
answer  for,  sins  of  frivolity  and  display,  of  indolence,  and  ignorance  of 
what  is  good  and  true ;  but — we  say  it  in  no  pharisaic  spirit — we  are 


APPENDIX   C.  437 

Its  terrible  evils  are  chiefly  visible  among  the 
upper  classes ;  but  who  can  tell  what  mischief  is 
done  throughout  every  rank  of  society  by  exam- 
ples so  conspicuously  set  ?  When  the  best  sanc- 
tion of  social  morality,  the  reprobation  of  vice  by 
women,  is  cast  aside  in  the  highest  circles,  who 
can  tell  how  widely  the  encouragement  may  act  ? 
It  is  happily  limited  as  yet  in  our  country  by  two 
checks,  the  purity  of  the  throne,  and  the  strength 
of  religious  feeling  in  the  middle  classes.  And 
we  may  hope  and  believe  that  these  influences  will 
ultimately  prevail,  so  far  at  least  as  to  shame  into 
respect  for  external  decency  those  who  now  flaunt 
their  defiance  of  morality  and  modesty  in  the 
public  eye.  But  not  the  less  is  it  apparent  that 
men  and  women. degrade  each  other  when  social 
opinion  inculcates  that  life's  chief  aim  is  luxurious 
enjoyment,  and  that  to  secure  a  good  establish- 
ment is  the  one  purpose  for  which  a  girl  should 

be  brought  up 

"  In  this  is  summed  up  the  fatal  error  of  the 
day  in  the  position  assigned  to  women.  We  dis- 
regard, even  if  we  do  not  deny,  the  fact  that  they 
have  souls  as  well  as  bodies, — souls  not  only  to 
be  saved,  but  to  be  cultivated,  instructed,  made 
fit  to  do  what  work  God  has  assigned  such  souls 

devoutly  thankful  that,  as  yet,  they  are  under  no  temptations  to  imitate 
and  emulate  the  painted  and  bedizened  daughters  of  shame,  or  enter  the 
lists  with  them  in  winning  rich  and  fashionable  rakes  for  husbands. 
Far  distant  be  that  day  when  we  shall  be  called  to  write  such  bitter 
things  of  our  countrywomen. 


438  APPENDIX  C. 

to  do  on  earth,  as  well  as  to  grow  meet  for  the 
nobler  duties  that  may  await  them  in  Heaven. 
Herein  arises  no  question  whether  they  are 
intellectually  equal  with  the  souls  of  men  or 
not.  Enough  that  they  are  intellectual ;  the  con- 
clusion follows  that  the  intellect  ought  to  be 
employed.  And  concede  only  this  simple,  this 
indisputable  proposition,  and  it  will  guide  us 
through  all  our  difficulties.  Grant  that  we  have 
to  think  of  the  minds  of  women  as  their  chief 
part ;  and  how  different  must  be  the  education  we 
give  them,  as  well  as  how  different  the  work  we 
must  expect  from  them  :  the  one  dependent  on 
the  other;  the  education  to  make  them  capable 
of  the  work,  the  work  as  the  outcome  of  the  edu- 
cation. 

"  The  wider  usefulness  which  ought  to  be  in- 
trusted to  women  is  craved  for  by  themselves.  It 
is  easy  for  us  to  speak  of  the  frivolity  of  their 
pursuits  and  cares,  when  we  force  them,  by  all  the 
moral  power  we  can  bring  to  bear,  to  be  nothing 
more  than  frivolous.  But  against  this  constraint, 
their  own  higher  and  better  nature  constantly 
rebels.  Some,  of  course,  there  are  among  them,  as 
among  men,  who  are  not  capable  of  more  than  tri- 
viality. But  it  is  incontestable  that  the  majority 
of  women  would  most  eagerly  welcome  a  truer 
education  than  they  are  now  permitted  to  have. 
The  cry  among  the  poor  is  hardly  more  strong  for 
leave  to  work,  than  it  is  among  the  rich  for  leave 


APPENDIX    C.  439 

to  be  useful.  Against  every  difficulty  and  tacit 
opposition,  many  girls  of  the  higher  classes  eagerly 
fling  themselves  into  such  branches  of  parish, 
church,  school,  or  other  local  work,  as  are  at  all 
allowed  to  them.  The  more  active  minds  form 
sisterhoods,  in  which  the  nursing  of  the  sick  and 
the  tending  of  the  poor  are  the  principal  occupa- 
tions. There  is  no  doubt  that  much  of  the  encour- 
agement which  has  lately  been  given  to  ritualism, 
may  be  traced  back  to  its  recognition  of  the  long- 
ing of  women  to  devote  themselves  to  what  they 
are  able  to  think,  and  to  what,  in  some  sort,  are 
really  active  and  important  services.  Those  who 
know  how  readily  recruits  are  found  among  women 
for  all  sorts  of  lay  mission  work,  will  bear  witness  to 
their  longing  to  labor  in  fields  that  are  not  natur- 
ally inviting  to  the  frivolous.  Again,  the  recent 
establishment  of  lectures  for  women,  on  subjects 
often  abstruse,  and  given  by  men  whose  position 
is  guarantee  that  they  will  not  deal  with  the  sub- 
jects in  a  too  popular  method,  has  elicited  proof 
that,  in  every  part  of  the  kingdom,  women  are 
anxious  to  avail  themselves  of  every  opportunity 
of  cultivating  their  minds,  and  of  developing  facul- 
ties which  have  not  ev^'n  the  attraction  of  any 

immediate  application 

"  It  does  not  fall  within  the  scope  of  this  paper 
to  enter  into  the  details  of  an  educational  svstem 

m 

that  would  remedy  the  defects  so  prevalent  at 
present.  It  is  enough  here  to  point  out  the  prin- 


440  APPENDIX  C. 

ciples  which  ought  to  regulate  such  a  system. 
The  principle  is  the  same  for  women  as  for  men- 
That  is  a  true  education  which  teaches  how  the 
faculties  which  its  Maker  has  implanted  in  the 
soul  can  be  made  most  serviceable  to  our  fellow- 
creatures.  For  in  serving  others  consists  self- 
elevation.  Whatever  is  divine  in  ourselves,  is 
most  fully  developed  by  the  endeavor  to  make  it 
beneficial  to  our  neighbor.  Herein  is  scope,  and 
motive,  and  reward  for  the  most  patient  effort  of 
self-culture.  Nor  is  it  to  be  overlooked  that,  in 
the  wonderful  scheme  of  God's  earthly  government, 
the  doing  of  good  to  others  is  the  direct  means  by 
which  what  is  called  success  in  life  is  achieved 
for  ourselves.  Unthinkingly,  often,  the  man  of 
the  world  who  by  honest  effort  struggles  to  raise 
himself,  raises  hundreds  around  him.  All  science, 
all  commerce,  all  industry,  by  which  human  fame 
or  fortune  is  made,  spread  blessings  around.  Not 
less  do  they  lead  to  fame  and  fortune,  if  pursued 
for  the  sake  of  the  blessings  they  confer.  Women's 
education  and  work  make  no  exception  to  this 
happy  rule.  If  a  woman  were  to  try  to  do  the 
very  best  for  herself  in  a  worldly  sense,  she  could 
take  no  surer  course  tlmn  by  fitting  herself  to 
confer  the  largest  benefits  on  those  around  her. 
For  her,  then,  I  ask  the  best,  when  I  ask  that  she 
should  be  trained  so  as  to  be  best  able  to  do  good. 
Beyond  elementary  education  this  process  must 
vary  in  the  case  of  every  individual,  according  to 


APPENDIX  C.  441 

her  individual  temperament  and  her  position  in 
life.  Only  let  the  highest  faculties  be  in  each  case 
most  regarded — the  capacities  for  literature,  for  art, 
for  industry,  for  government,  for  organizing,  for 
instructing,  for  sick-nursing,  with  the  thousand 
subdivisions  and  modifications  of  each,  present  a 
wide  enough  field,  within  which  every  girl  can 
find  some  innate  taste  to  gratify,  some  special 
aptitude  to  cultivate.  -Let  her  count  that  her 
duty  which  she  can  best  exercise.  Let  fathers 
and  mothers  count  it  their  most  solemn  duty  to 
help  and  guide  their  children  to  render  themselves 
thus  worthy  workers  in  their  Father's  vineyard, 
that  so,  when  the  day  is  done,  they  may  receive 
every  one  the  reward  of  their  work. 

"  Does  any  one  object  that  in  thus  developing  the 
higher  nature  of  women,  in  teaching  and  admitting 
them  to  the  performance  of  important  duties,  there 
is  danger  that  any  of  the  peculiar  charms  of  their 
sex  should  be  lost  ?  Surely,  neither  in  men  nor 
in  women  is  it  to  be  found  that  a  sense  of  life's 
deeper  realities  and  responsibilities,  and  an  interest 
in  things  outside  themselves,  are  hostile  to  the 
qualities  that  make  the  delight  of  companionship. 
The  struggle,  indeed,  which  women  just  now  have 
to  make  in  order  to  escape  from  the  trammels  of  a 
false  position,  do  sometimes  lead  them  to  take  up 
an  attitude  which  we  should  not  perhaps  like  to 
see  them  all  assume.  I  do  not  admire,  any  more 
than  their  critics,  the  type  of  the  '  strong-minded ' 


442  APPENDIX  C. 

woman,  as  it  is  occasionally  presented  to  us.  I 
am  not  arguing  in  favor  of  woman-militant,  or 
defending  any  errors  of  taste  into  which  some 
may  occasionally  fall.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
we  all  have  the  happiness  of  knowing  a  far  greater 
number  of  examples  of  women,  intelligent  and 
cultivated,  active  in  every  good  work,  interested 
in  all  that  is  worthy  of  interest,  who  by  such 
development  of  their  faculties  have  added  addi- 
tional grace  and  luster  to  their  natural  attractions. 
Even  men  who  only  look  for  agreeable  companions, 
acknowledge  that  they  are  to  be  found  rather 
among  the  educated  than  the  uneducated.  What 
further  answer  is  needed  to  the  apprehensions 
which  only  silly  men  venture  to  express,  that 
learning  and  employment  would  make  women 
bores,  and  destroy  the  pleasures  of  society  ? 

"And  the  world  has  room  and  need  for  all  the 
higher  work  of  which  women  are  capable.  In  cities, 
in  villages,  in  prisons  and  in  workhouses,  in  art- 
galleries  and  in  letters,  in  all  branches  of  industry, 
and  in  every  field  of  benevolence,  the  world  will 

* 

be  grateful  to  the  women  who  can  do  it  service. 
In  many  things  the  world  gropes  and  stumbles, 
because  it  has  not  enough  of  women's  hands  to 
guide  it.  In  many  other  things  in  which  men  and 
women  may  labor  together,  there  is  a  cry  for  more 
labor.  In  some  things  even  men's  work  is  less 
perfect  than  it  would  be  if  they  had  women's  work 
to  compare  with  their  own.  For  women,  I  again 


APPENDIX  0.  443 

say,  I  do  not  call  the  same  as  men,  but  different — 
their  complement,  the  necessary  element  to  the 
completeness  of  human  nature.  Even  in  our 
highest  public  duties,  we  should  be  incalculably 
helped  by  admitting  the  directness,  the  simplicity, 
the  instinctive  honesty  of  a  woman's  unperverted 
mind.  Often  their  counsel  would  be  less  cowardly 
than  men's,  simply  because  they  would  more  regard 
what  is  ultimately  right,  and  less  what  is  probably 
and  immediately  profitable.  And  in  thus  counsel- 
ing us,  women  would  save  us  from  many  disasters 
into  which  our  own  selfish  and  short-sighted  policy 
is  daily  leading  us,  because  we  choose  to  forget 
that  what  is  not  right  can  not  be  profitable  ulti- 
mately, whatever  the  promise  of  safety  or  wealth 

it  may  hold  out  for  the  moment 

"  But  in  matters  affecting  our  home  administra- 
tion, surely  no  candid  mind  can  dispute  the  fact 
that  women's  opinions  would  be  a  most  valuable 
corrective  of  our  own.  I  leave  out  of  sight  all 
the  questions  which  practically  affect  women, 
either  as  regards  their  property  or  their  persons ; 
for  every  day  we  concede  to  them,  as  individuals, 
rights  of  self-government  which  the  surviving  bar- 
barism of  our  laws  still  denies  to  them  as  a  sec- 
tion of  the  community.  But  looking  to  matters 
in  which,  as  members  of  the  community,  women 
have  an'  interest  as  great  as  men  have,  it  is  obvi- 
ous that  we  should  reap  incalculable  advantage 
from  their  considering  along  with  us  the  national 


444  APPENDIX    C. 

questions  of  education  of  the  young,  of  the  man- 
agement of  the  poor,  of  the  treatment  of  criminals, 
and  of  the  guidance  of  emigration.  Whoever 
thinks  that  on  these  topics  women  would  be  less 
careful,  cautious,  and  judicious  counselors  than 
men  are,  simply  betrays  that  he  takes  for  his  type 
of  womanhood  '  the  girl  of  the  period,'  as  he 
has  helped  to  make  her,  and  knows  nothing  of  the 
number  of  women  who  have  thought  out  and  ma- 
tured the  working  of  all  these  most  difficult  prob- 
lems of  social  humanity.  But,  in  narrower 
spheres  than  those  that  belong  to  the  domain  of 
politics,  we  equally  want  the  recognized  help  of 
women.  Whatever  the  nation  resolves  on,  each 
locality  must  administer ;  and,  in  the  administra- 
tion, there  is  need  for  all  the  experience  and 
all  the  wisdom  that  both  sexes  can  contribute. 
These  very  questions — education,  poor  relief, 
prisons,  hospitals,  and  emigration,  are  local  ques- 
tions. In  every  one  of  these  there  are  departments 
which  scarcely  any  but  women  are  competent  to 
deal  with.  Why  do  we  not— I  will  not  say,  merely, 
admit — but  why  do  we  not  urge  women  to  help 
us  with  the  classification  and  redemption  of  female 
paupers,  and  pauper  children,  and  prisoners  ?  How 
can  we,  with  our  rough  reasoning  and  generalization 
even  attempt  to  deal  with  what  a  cultivated 
woman's  intuition  can  alone  discriminate  and 
appreciate  ?  Once  again,  for  fear  of  being,  perhaps 
willfully,  misunderstood,  I  repeat  that  I  do  not 


APPENDIX  C.  445 

assert  that  every  woman  would  be  of  value  in 
such  work;  I  certainly  could  still  less  say  so  of 
every  man.  But  I  do  say,  that  there  are  thou- 
sands of  women  in  every  district  who  are  compe- 
tent to  help  in  such  work — to  help  in  a  way  in 
which  no  male  help  would  avail. 

"  For  the  sake,  then,  of  the  country  and  of  its 
dearest  interests,  we  ought  to  invite  women  to 
bear  part  with  us  in  the  great  Christian  duty  of 
doing  good  to  our  neighbor  ;  for  the  sake  of  women 
themselves,  we  ought  so  to  train  them  that  they 
may  understand  that  duty  and  do  it.  Think  of  a 
woman's  empty  life,  as  too  often  now  public  opin- 
ion makes  it — her  training  in  a  few  showy  gifts, 
almost  avowedly  to  help  her  in  husband-hunting — 
her  seclusion  from  all  that  interests  the  best  men, 
her  incapacity  to  rule  even  her  own  household 
and  her  own  children,  because,  alas  !  she  has  never 
been  taught  how  to  do  either ;  think  of  her  life, 
but  half  useful  if  she  does  marry,  and  an  utter 
blank  if  she  does  not — and  then  say  how  great  the 
loss,  the  pity,  and  the  shame,  of  an  up-bringing 
that  has  such  results.  Women  and  men  alike  the 
losers;  but  if  the  pity  be  for  the  women,  the 
shame  is  for  the  men ;  for  it  is  by  the  indifference 
and  misjudgment  of  men  that  women  are  so 
brought  up.  It  is  because  fathers  do  not  think  of 
their  daughters'  future,  because  they  too  often 
regard  them  as  only  so  much  goods  to  be  got  rid 
of  in  the  market,  and  therefore  only  to  be  dressed 


446  APPENDIX  0. 

and  adapted  for  the  market,  that  the  daughters  are 
so  unfit  for  any  higher  function.  When  we  cry 
out  about  women's  frivolity,  or  vanity,  or  luxury, 
we  impeach  the  education  which  has  cultivated 
these  feelings,  and  has  not  been  directed  to  devel- 
op any  of  the  higher  and  nobler  faculties  with 
which  women  are  so  endowed. 

"  I  appeal  then  to  men,  because  by  their  strength 
they  are  the  masters  ;  I  appeal  to  women,  because 
even  now  their  domestic  influence  is  so  great ;  I 
appeal  to  all  that  mass  of  thought  which  forms  the 
public  opinion  by  which  we  are  governed,  to  give 
to  the  women  of  the  present  and  of  coming  genera- 
tions a  fair  chance  !  Let  us  think  of  them  and 
deal  with  them  as  fellow-workers  with  us,  it  may 
be  in  different  departments,  but,  at  least,  in  the  one 
great  duty  of  doing  good  on  earth.  Let  us  teach 
them  and  train  them  so  that  they  can  work  with 
us  in  that  duty.  Shall  we,  in  doing  so,  make 
them  unmaidenly,  unwifely,  unmotherly  ?  No : 
rather,  more  perfect  in  all  womanly  gifts  and 
graces,  of  which  those  will  first  enjoy  the  happi- 
ness who  are  nearest  to  them  in  their  homes.  We 
can  not  unsex  women  by  cultivating  more  highly 
the  qualities  that  are  the  especial  glory  of  their 
sex.  We  shall  not  make  them  masterful  by  teach- 
ing them  how  best  they  can  serve.  The  purity, 
the  charity,  the  tenderness  that  is  in  them,  we 
now  corrupt  and  crush  by  misdirection,  and  by 
forbidding  them  any  object  save  that  which  a 


APPENDIX  C.  447 

possible  husband  and  children  may  supply.  Allow- 
ed only  to  expand — allowed  to  be  bestowed  on  a 
wider  circle  of  sympathies — allowed  to  seek  out  a 
sphere  beyond  the  range  of  self-interest,  these 
qualities  will  be  enhanced  in  strength,  and  will 
become  to  us  the  richer  blessings.  Women  and 
men  will  be  drawn  the  closer  in  the  bonds  of 
mutual  service,  and  love,  and  comfort,  when  we 
seek  women's  aid,  and  train  them  to  give  their 
aid  no  longer  only  in  our  idleness  and  amuse- 
ments, but  in  the  daily  round  of  duties  which 
makes  the  noblest  portion  of  our  lives." 


THE    END. 


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